JUN  17  191g 

Logical  st»v^ 


THE  STORY  OF 
BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 


THE  STORY  OF 
BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 


MAX  L.  MARGOLIS 


MIN  17  1918 


PHILADELPHIA 
THE   JEWISH   PUBLICATION   SOCIETY  OF   AMERICA 

1917 


Copyright,  19 17,  Hy 
The  Jewish  Publication  Society  of  America 


TO 

PHILIP  N.  AND  CARRIE  G.  ARONSON 

IN   FILIAL   LOVE 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  The  Targum  9 

II.  The  Septuagint  and  the  Later  Greek  Versions  . .  26 

III.  Ancient  Christian  Translations 44 

IV.  Jewish  Translations  in  the  Middle  Ages 50 

V.  The  Age  of  the  Reformation.    Luther  and  the 

King  James  Version 64 

VI.  Modern  Translations  by  Jews  and  Christians..  79 

VII.  Agencies  for  Circulating  the  Bible 107 

VIII.  The  Difficulties  Inherent  in  All  Bible  Trans- 
lations    117 

Index    131 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

(Size  Reduced)  FACING 

PAGE 

British  Museum— about  1300  c.  e 17 

Codex  Vaticanus— 4th  Cent ^3 

Palimpsest  of  the  Cairo  Genizah 42 

Codex  Petropolitanus — 916  c.  e 51 

The  Pentateuch,  Constantinople  1547 62 

Witzenhausen's    Judeo-German    Version,    Amsterdam 

1679    63 

The  Gutenberg  Bible  (Vulgate)  of  1456 66 

First  Rabbinic  Bible,  Venice  1516-7 67 


CHAPTER  I 
THE  TARGUM 

It  is  not  my  intention  in  these  pages  to  add  one 
more  reference-work  to  the  many  excellent  ones 
which  have  to  do  with  Bible  translations.  Biblio- 
graphical completeness  will  not  be  attempted.  I  shall 
p    .  confine  myself  to  the  Hebrew  Scriptures 

_,  ,  of  which  alone  I  may  speak  with  first-hand 
Keinarks. 

knowledge,  but  even  so  the  subject  is  a 

vast  one.  The  external  or  human  side  must  needs 
receive  attention,  but  the  general  reader  will  none 
the  less  be  interested  to  learn  how  the  epoch-making 
translations  go  with  great  cultural  and  religious 
upheavals  and  how  all  of  them  display  certain  char- 
acteristics which  seem  to  inhere  in  the  oldest  and 
youngest  alike. 

mi.    /M-  •    I.  The  Torah  which  Israel  received  with 

The  Object  .     ,  ,         ,.                ,      , 

n  -n-Li  joyful  readmess  at  the  foot  of  mount 

of  Bible  c^.     .           .      , 

_       ,  ,.  bmai  was  m  the  opmion  of  the  rabbis 

Translation.  ^ 

originally  intended  for  all  mankind  as 

a  guide  to  their  salvation.     God  spoke  not  in  secret 

(Isaiah  45.  19),  but  in  the  open  and  free  desert,  that 

all  men  might  have  access  to  the  revealed  Word; 

indeed  the  Torah  was  offered  first  to  the  Gentiles,  but 


10  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

Esau  and  Ishmael  and  other  nations  were  unwilling 
to  forego  killing  and  immorality  and  stealing  which 
the  Decalogue  forbids.  The  rabbis  also  assert  that 
Joshua  had  the  Torah  engraved  upon  the  stones  of 
the  altar  (Joshua  8.  30-32)  not  only  in  the  original, 
but  also  in  all  the  other  tongues  of  the  world.  Of 
these  translations  the  nations  secured  transcripts,  but 
after  reading  them,  they  turned  their  back  upon  the 
Torah.  Accordingly,  the  object  of  the  translation 
would  have  been  to  make  the  Scriptures  known  to  the 
alien.  There  is  an  element  of  truth  in  this  contention, 
and  we  shall  come  to  speak  of  it  in  connection  with 
the  earliest  Greek  translation  (chapter  II).  It  may 
suffice  for  the  present  to  recall  the  recognition  con- 
ceded by  Maimonides  to  the  two  daughter-religions 
that  through  them  the  words  of  the  Torah  have  been 
spread  to  the  utmost  isles  and  among  many  nations. 
The  great  Jewish  thinker  would  have  accorded  un- 
stinted praise  to  the  stupendous  efforts  of  modern 
Bible  societies  (chapter  VII).  Yet  for  all  that  the 
primary  object  of  Bible  translation  was  to  serve  a 
need  nearer  home,  that  those  to  whom  the  original 
was  a  sealed  book  might  profit  by  reading  the  Scrip- 
tures in  the  language  spoken  by  them. 

Just  at  what  time  among  the  Jews  of  Palestine 
Hebrew  ceased  to  be  the  spoken  language  of  the 


THE  TARGUM  n 


people  is  a  mooted  question.    The  older  view  has  it 

that  the  Jews  lost  their  Hebrew  speech  in  the  Baby- 

„,      „,  Ionian  captivity  whence  they  brought 

The  Change     ,     ,      ./,      \      .  .  ^  ^  ."^ 

back  with  them  the  Aramaic.    Hebrew 

.  .^  ,  ,.  and  Aramaic  are  sister  languages  be- 
m  Palestine.    ,       .  ,  ,  o      •.• 

longing  to  the  group  known  as  Semitic 

and  comprising  in  addition  Arabic,  Ethiopic,  and 
Assyro-Babylonian.  There  is  a  close  resemblance 
among  them  all  in  structure  and  vocabulary,  and 
Hebrew  is  related  to  Aramaic  as  Low  German  or 
Dutch  is  to  High  German.  The  people,  of  course, 
have  no  ear  for  resemblances  often  disguised,  plain 
though  they  may  be  to  the  scholar.  In  the  days  of 
Hezekiah  Aramaic  was  understood  by  the  courtiers ; 
to  the  common  soldier  it  meant  an  unintelligible  gib- 
berish. Ezra  (in  the  fifth  century)  is  reported  to 
have  read  the  Law  to  the  assembled  people  '  dis- 
tinctly '  (Nehemiah  8.  8)  ;  according  to  the  rabbis, 
he  read  '  with  interpretation,'  that  is,  with  an  accom- 
panying rendition  into  the  Aramaic.  That,  of  course, 
may  simply  imply  the  carrying  of  a  custom  in  vogue 
at  a  later  period  back  to  Ezra,  to  whom  many  other 
institutions  are  ascribed.  It  has  been  urged  that  the 
Aramaic  spoken  in  Palestine  was  a  dialect  differing 
from  the  Babylonian  variety  and  could  not  have  been 
imported   from  the   East.      It  has   therefore   been 


12  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

argued  that  the  change  of  speech  must  have  occurred 
in  Palestine  itself  a  century  or  so  after  Ezra.  But 
we  know  now  that  the  Jewish  military  colony,  which 
settled  in  Egypt  long  before  Cambyses  (529-522), 
spoke  and  wrote  Aramaic  in  the  days  of  Nehemiah. 
We  must  understand  that  the  change  in  Palestine  was 
gradual,  Hebrew  succumbing  in  the  North  earlier 
than  in  the  South.  For  a  time  indeed  both  languages 
were  spoken  and  understood,  until  at  length  Hebrew 
vanished  from  the  mouth  of  the  people.  As  late  as 
the  second  century  of  the  current  era  Hebrew  was 
still  spoken  in  some  nook  or  corner,  but  in  the  main  it 
had  become  a  sacred  tongue  understood  by  the 
learned,  but  unknown  to  the  unlettered  who  con- 
versed in  Aramaic. 

But  the  Word  of  God  was  to  be  understood  of  the 
people.  Just  how  early  the  custom  arose  for  the 
Scriptures,  the  Torah  and  the  Prophets  in  particular, 

^,     ^    ,    to  be  read  on  the  sabbath  in  the  synas^ogue 

The  Oral 

_  is  not  known.    But  when  these  lessons  had 

Xars'imi 

become  a  fixed  institution,  it  followed  of 

necessity  that  a  translation  into  the  people's  speech 
should  go  hand  in  hand  with  the  reading  of  the  origi- 
nal. The  rabbis  call  all  translations  Targum,  but  the 
name  is  specifically  applied  to  the  Aramaic  version. 
At  first  the  Targum  was  oral.     Beside  the  reader 


THE  TARGUM  13 


stood  the  Targeman  (hence  the  word  '  dragoman  '), 
the  official  interpreter.  A  verse,  or  in  the  case  of  the 
Prophets  a  connected  section  not  exceeding  three 
verses,  was  read  in  the  Hebrew  and  immediately 
translated  into  Aramaic.  Both  the  original,  from  the 
scroll,  and  the  translation,  from  memory,  were  to  be 
declaimed  in  the  same  pitch,  and  the  interpreter  was 
enjoined  not  to  lean  against  the  desk,  but  in  defer- 
ential posture  to  stand  some  way  off.  The  transla- 
tion frequently  assumed  the  character  of  free  expo- 
sition with  a  view  to  inculcating  the  interpretation 
which  the  schools  placed  upon  a  law  or  custom  and 
in  general  to  bringing  down  the  scriptural  word  to 
the  comprehension  of  the  common  people.  The 
prophetic  lessons  naturally  lent  themselves  to  amplifi- 
cation ;  the  interpreter  turned  preacher,  prefacing  his 
remarks  with  a  direct  address  to  the  congregation  in 
some  such  words  as  *  O  my  people,  sons  of  Israel,'  or 
'  The  prophet  saith.'  This  freedom  had  its  dangers, 
especially  at  the  time  of  the  rise  of  the  heresies  out 
of  which  a  new  religion  was  born.  The  Talmud  dis- 
countenances the  practice  of  certain  interpreters  who 
introduce  the  law  Leviticus  22.  28  {'  whether  it  be 
cow  or  ewe,  ye  shall  not  kill  it  and  its  young  both  in 
one  day  ')  with  the  homily  :  *  As  our  Father  is  mer- 
ciful in  Heaven,  so  shall  ye  be  merciful  on  earth.' 
The  rabbis  themselves  enjoin  the  imitation  of  divine 


14  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

^_ __^ > 

mercy :  *  As  He  is  gracious  and  merciful,  so  be  thou 
gracious  and  merciful.'  Nevertheless  the  plea  is 
made  that  the  commandments  of  the  Torah  must  not 
be  turned  into  mere  ethical  prescriptions.  The  trans- 
lator must  not  wander  too  far  from  the  original.  '  He 
who  renders  a  verse  as  it  reads,  with  strict  literalness, 
lies;  he  that  makes  additions  is  a  blasphemer.'  In 
Leviticus  i8.  21  it  is  forbidden  to  give  over  of  one's 
seed  unto  Molech ;  the  Mishnah  makes  mention  of  a 
paraphrastic  (free)  rendering  by  which  the  prohibi- 
tion was  made  to  refer  to  sacrificing  one's  offspring 
through  intercourse  with  a  pagan  woman.  The 
abominable  Molech  worship  had  become  a  thing  for- 
gotten, and  the  translators  thought  themselves  justi- 
fied in  applying  the  scriptural  condemnation  to  a 
regrettable  laxity  prevalent  in  their  days.  Neverthe- 
less such  translators  were  to  be  silenced  with  rebuke. 
The  wording  of  the  original  was  paramount,  and  a 
translator  who  made  the  slightest  error  by  investing 
a  Hebrew  word  with  an  unwonted  meaning  was 
publicly  corrected.  Among  the  instances  cited  are 
the  renderings  *  (plain)  herbs  '  for  '  bitter  herbs  ' 
(Exodus  12.  8)  and  '  vessel '  for  '  basket '  (Deuter- 
onomy 26.  2).  To  quote  a  parallel  from  another 
quarter  :  when  the  book  of  Jonah  was  read  in  a  Chris- 
tian church  in  Africa  from  Jerome's  new  Latin  ver- 
sion (chapter  HI),  there  was  an  uproar,  because 


THE  TARGUM  15 


the  miraculous  plant  (4.  6),  which  in  the  older  trans- 
lation based  upon  the  Greek  had  been  rendered 
*  gourd/  was  now  identified  with  the  '  ivy.' 

The  rabbis  looked  with  disfavor  upon  written 
Targnms.  Translation  naturally  partook  of  the 
character  of  interpretation,  and  all  interpretation 
_  , , .  .  was  classed  with  the  oral  law.     It  was 

_,.  ,  believed  that  when  Moses  delivered  the 

Disapproval         .         _         .  ,      t        .  r    1 

n  TTT  -xx  written  Law  into  the  keepmsr  of  the 
of  Written         .         ,       ,      .  1  ,  . 

_  priests  he  also  instructed  his  successor 
Tarffuins. 

Joshua,  and  Joshua  the  elders,  and  the 

elders  the  prophets,  and  the  prophets  the  men  of  the 

Great  Synagogue,  in  all  the  ramifications  of  each 

subject  by   word    of  mouth.      Writing   seemed   to 

bestow  a  measure  of  sacredness,  and  nothing  was  to 

rival  the  Scriptures  in  authority.     '  Only  the  things 

written  might  be  written ;  wiiat  was  handed  down  by 

word  of  mouth  must  be  transmitted  orally.'     The 

written  Word  of  God,  moreover,  was  held  to  be 

capable  of  more  than  one  sense ;  to  fasten  upon  it  just 

one  was  not  permissible.     However,  it  was  not  so 

much  the  written  copy  that  was  placed  under  the 

ban  as  the  public  use  of  it.     Written  Targums  were 

found  in  private  possession  at  an  early  time.     Rabbi 

Samuel  son  of  Isaac   (in  the  fourth  century),  on 

entering  the  synagogue,  remonstrated  with  a  scribe 

who  read  from  a  written  Targum.     At  an  earlier 


i6  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

period  it  is  reported  of  Gamaliel  the  Elder  that  he 
had  a  copy  of  the  Targum  of  the  book  of  Job  im- 
mured beneath  a  layer  of  stones  in  the  Temple. 
When  a  fire  broke  out  on  the  sabbath,  such  volumes, 
as  indeed  copies  of  any  other  translation  of  the 
Scriptures,  were  to  be  saved  along  with  the  scrolls 
of  the  original ;  but  the  former  must  then  be  stored 
away,  withdrawn  from  public  use.  The  ancients  had 
a  wonderful  memory,  but  as  the  traditional  lore  grew 
in  magnitude  and  the  retentiveness  of  scholars  weak- 
ened, the  private  volumes  were  produced  and  suc- 
cessively recast,  until  at  length  they  became  the  pub- 
lic property  of  the  Jewish  people.  Mishnah,  Gemara, 
Targum,  all  passed  through  similar  stages  of  growth, 
each  with  its  Palestinian  recension  and  its  Babylonian 
counterpart.  Just  as  the  Babylonian  Talmud  sup- 
planted the  Palestinian  in  point  of  authority,  so  the 
Babylonian  Targums  overshadowed  those  of  Pales- 
tine out  of  which  they  had  grown,  the  Babylonian 
schools  placing  their  seal  of  approval  upon  a  form 
suitable  to  the  needs  of  the  time. 

_  In  the  foremost  rank  stands  the  Baby- 

TargTim  -^ 

^  ,  -  Ionian  Tarsrum  of  the  Pentateuch  which 
Onkelos.  ^ 

goes  by  the  name  of  Onkelos.    When  in  the 

sequel  Aramaic  had  given  place  to  Arabic  as  the  lan- 
guage spoken  by  Eastern  Jewry,  or  when  in  the  West 
the  Jews  had  adopted  the  speech  of  the  European 


•n^STSS 


BRITISH    MUSEUM— ABOUT  1300  C.   E. 
With  the  Targum  after  each  verse  and  Masoretic  notes  in  the  margins 


THE  TARGUM  17 


nations,  this  Targum  continued  to  be  read  and 
studied.  On  the  eve  of  the  sabbath  it  was  customary 
to  read  the  lesson  in  advance,  twice  in  the  original 
and  once  in  the  Targum.  The  wording  of  the  trans- 
lation was  as  zealously  guarded  as  that  of  the  original. 
According  to  the  Babylonian  Talmud,  the  version 
was  the  work  of  Onkelos  the  proselyte  under  the 
supervision  of  Rabbi  Eliezer  and  Rabbi  Joshua;  but 
the  statement,  it  has  been  clearly  shown,  rests  upon  a 
nisunderstanding :  the  parallel  statement  in  the  Pales- 
tinian Talmud  speaks  of  Aquila  (Akylas)  who  trans- 
lated the  Scriptures  into  Greek  (chapter  II).  In- 
ternal evidence  points  to  the  times  of  Rabbi  Akiba  in 
which  the  earlier  layers  of  the  Targum  must  be 
sought.  Thus  the  language  is  but  slightly  tinged 
with  foreign  elements,  and  those  are  mainly  Greek; 
where  the  parallel  Targums  of  Palestinian  redaction 
(see  below)  make  mention  of  Byzantium  or  Con- 
stantinople, Onkelos  speaks  of  the  Romans;  where 
Onkelos  indulges  in  amplification  of  a  legal  (halakic) 
or  sermonic  (haggadic)  character,  he  reproduces 
matter  taught  by  Akiba  and  his  school.  The  home- 
land of  the  Targum  was  certainly  Palestine:  the 
Aramaic  of  its  diction  is  unmistakably  of  the  Western 
variety,  but  slightly  retouched  by  Babylonian  or 
Eastern  idioms.  It  was  in  Babylonia,  however,  that 
the  Targum  became  authoritative  in  home  and  school. 


i8  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

To  the  scholars  of  the  Babylonian  Talmud  this  Tar- 
gum  is  '  our  Targum,'  the  one  in  general  currency 
and  universally  recognized,  as  opposed  to  the  render- 
ing of  this  or  that  scholar  operating  in  his  own  per- 
sonal capacity.  '  As  we  translate '  is  a  frequently 
recurrent  mode  of  citing  it.  In  particular  it  was 
Rab  Joseph  the  Blind  (died  in  the  year  323)  who  was 
familiar  with  the  Targum,  although  other  scholars 
before  and  after  him  quote  from  it.  In  the  main  the 
Targum  ascribed  to  Onkelos  exhibits  a  marked 
fidelity  to  the  wording  of  the  original,  yet  not  at  the 
cost  of  intelligibility ;  only  here  and  there  the  literal 
rendering  is  given  up  so  as  to  inculcate  a  legal  point, 
and  in  the  poetic  passages  the  text  is  somewhat  freely 
expanded  with  a  view  to  weaving  in  a  homily  of  the 
rabbis.  It  is  certainly  free  from  all  the  spurious 
renderings  of  the  kind  referred  to  above,  which  the 
rabbis  discountenanced.  The  production  apparently 
was  suffered  to  reach  the  people  only  after  it  had 
passed  muster  under  the  critical  eye  of  the  responsible 
leaders.  It  is  indeed  a  learned  piece  of  work.  It  was 
meant  to  supersede  the  ampler  and  more  popular  ver- 
sions upon  which  it  probably  rests.  In  revising  the 
older  models  the  author  proved  rather  editor,  excis- 
ing any  feature  that  seemed  objectionable.  He  gave 
to  the  people  that  which  in  his  opinion  they  most 
stood  in  need  of  and  in  a  manner  suitable  to  their 
comprehension. 


THE  TARGUM  19 


It  is  fortunate,  however,  that  the  other  Targums 
to  which  authority  was  denied  did  not  wholly  perish. 
We  have  for  the  Pentateuch  a  parallel  Aramaic  trans- 
lation which  is  spoken  of  as  the  Targum  of  Jerusalem 
_,  or  the  Palestinian.     It  used  to  go  erro- 

p  ,  .  .  neously  by  the  name  of  Targum  Jona- 
than;  it  is  therefore  frequently  referred 
to  as  Pseudo-Jonathan.  Side  by  side 
with  the  complete  text  runs  a  parallel  recension 
extant  in  a  fragmentary  condition.  In  point  of 
redaction  this  Targum  is  certainly  posterior  to  Onke- 
los;  in  Genesis  21.  21  the  names  given  to  Ishmael's 
wives  are  apparently  those  of  Mohammed's.  On  the 
other  hand,  elements  of  high  antiquity  are  not  want- 
ing, as  when  in  Deuteronomy  33.  11  we  read :  *  The 
enemies  of  the  high  priest  Johanan  shall  not  survive.' 
Moreover,  it  has  preserved  traces  of  an  older  norm 
of  law  (halakah),  and  points  to  many  variations 
from  the  received  Hebrew  text.  In  general,  the 
Palestinian  Targum  embellishes  the  text  with  ser- 
monic  (haggadic)  expansions;  in  it  are  also  found 
objectionable  renderings  castigated  by  the  rabbis. 

Our  Targum  of  the  Prophets  was,  like  that 
of  Onkelos,  edited  in  Babylonia,  but  we  possess 
scanty  remains  of  a  Palestinian  recension.  Accord- 
ing to  the  passage  in  the  Babylonian  Talmud  which 
ascribes  the  Pentateuch  Targum  to  Onkelos,  the 


20  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

author  of  the  translation  of  the  Prophets  was  a  dis- 
ciple of  Hillel  by  the  name  of  Jonathan  son  of 
Uzziel.  The  Babylonian  teachers  (Amoraim)  were 
well  acquainted  with  it,  and  here  again  Rab  Joseph 

„.     _  is  responsible  for  most  of  the  cita- 

The  Targums  .         ^    ^                 „                •        i     i 

^,       ^,  tions.       It    naturally    contams    both 

for  the  other  ,  ,            ,                                        ,        . 

f>    ^      i.  XI  older  and  more  recent  matter,  but  it 

Parts  of  the  .     ,         ^              ,      .          .,',.. 

-    .  ^  IS   free  from  polemics   with  Christi- 

Scnptures.  ^     ,     ^  ^        ^      ,        /t     •  , 
anity.  In  the  Latter  Prophets  (Isaiah- 

Malachi)  the  subject-matter  lent  itself  to  paraphras- 
tic embellishment,  while  in  the  historical  books 
(Joshua-Kings)  there  is  on  the  whole  a  scrupu- 
lous adherence  to  the  letter.  The  Targums  to  the 
third  section  of  the  Scriptures  (the  Writings,  Ketu- 
bim : Psalms— Chronicles)  are  peculiar  to  the  Palestin- 
ians. They  never  appear  to  have  received  official 
sanction.  Some,  like  those  on  the  Song  of  Songs, 
Ecclesiastes,  and  one  of  the  three  on  Esther,  partake 
of  the  nature  of  midrashic  works,  while  others,  like 
the  translation  of  the  Psalter  (contrast,  however,  the 
lengthy  homily  to  Psalm  91),  are  literalistic.  The 
Targum  of  Proverbs  seems  to  have  been  taken  over 
from  the  Christian  Syrians  (chapter  III),  as  is  shown 
by  the  language  and  the  points  of  contact  with  the 
Septuagint.  In  all  of  them  old  material  stands  side 
by  side  with  later  elements,  as  when  in  Psalm  83.  7 
the  Hungarians  are  mentioned.     The  Samaritans, 


THE  TARGUM  21 


likewise,  possess  an  Aramaic  translation,  naturally 
confined  to  the  Pentateuch  which  alone  they  recog- 
nize as  Scripture. 

The  chief  importance  which  attaches  to  the  Ara- 
maic Targum  lies  in  the  fact  that  it  enables  us  to 
gain  an  insight  into  the  interpretation  of  the  Scrip- 

^,  ^  .  tures  at  a  time  when  tradition  had  not 
Character  of  ,,,,.,  ,,  ,      , 

yet  wholly  died  out.     Not  only  those 

Targums  which  received  official  sanc- 
tion, but  also  those  less  authoritative,  keep  close  to 
the  sentiments  of  the  Synagogue,  and  constitute  an 
invaluable  source  of  information  concerning  the  re- 
ligious development  in  post-biblical  times.  Naturally 
the  ideas  which  run  through  the  Targum  are  identical 
with  those  which  the  talmudic-midrashic  literature 
opens  up  to  us ;  moreover,  they  have  their  points  of 
contact  with  an  older  period  in  which  the  later  writ- 
ings of  the  biblical  collection  itself  had  their  origin. 
When  Maimonides  engaged  in  warfare  upon  the 
notion  which  ascribed  bodily  form  to  the  Deity,  he 
was  able  to  point  to  the  authority  of  the  Targums,  of 
Onkelos  in  particular.     The  scholars  may  full-well 

,   ^,  ,  .  know  that  the  prophets  indulge 

Anthropomorphisms    .      ..,,.,      .,„ 

,  ,  m  similes  likening:  the  Creator  to 

toned  down.  ,  ,    ^        ^  • 

the  creature  and  that  the  scrip- 
tural modes  of  speech  are  merely  accommodations  to 
the  human  ear;  not  so  the  ordinary  folk.     For  their 


22  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

sake  the  human  traits  attributed  to  the  Deity  are 
sedulously  toned  down.  Thus  God  does  not  smell  the 
sweet  savor  of  an  offering,  but  accepts  it  with  plea- 
sure; on  the  Passover  night  He  does  not  pass  over 
the  Israelites,  but  spares  them ;  He  does  not  go  before 
the  people,  He  leads  it;  instead  of  God  hearing  or 
seeing,  it  is  said  that  it  was  heard  or  revealed  before 
Him;  the  hand  that  covers  Moses  becomes  the  pro- 
tecting Word,  just  as  the  wind  which  He  blows  is 
the  Word  which  He  speaks ;  the  finger  of  God  is  re- 
duced to  a  blow  from  before  Him,  God's  feet  are  His 
glorious  throne,  and  God's  staff  is  the  staff  wherewith 
miracles  are  wrought.  Actions  unbecoming  God,  as 
when  He  meets  Moses  to  slay  him  (Exodus  4.  24), 
are  ascribed  to  His  angel.  Just  as  God  must  not  be 
humanized,  divine  appellations  may  not  be  used  of 
human  beings.  Moses  is  to  be  to  Aaron  a  master, 
not  a  God.  The  sons  of  God  who  took  the  daughters 
of  man  for  wives  were  not  even  angels,  for  angels  do 
not  go  a-wooing,  but  sons  of  rulers.  There  cannot 
be  any  comparison  between  the  Lord  and  the  gods. 
'  Who  is  like  unto  Thee  among  the  gods  ?  who  is  like 
Thee,  etc'  (Exodus  15.  11)  is  made  to  read:  *  There 
is  none  beside  Thee,  for  Thou  art  God,  O  Lord ;  there 
is  none  except  Thyself.'  All  personification  of  inani- 
mate objects  is  wiped  out.  The  promised  land  does 
not  flow  with  milk  and  honey,  but  yields  those  prod- 


THE  TARGUM  23 


ucts;  the  sword  does  not  come,  but  murderers  with 
the  sword ;  Ezekiel  does  not  eat  the  scroll,  but  listens 
attentively  to  its  contents ;  and  the  proverb :  '  The 
fathers  have  eaten  sour  grapes,  and  the  children's 
teeth  are  set  on  edge '  is  paraphrased  into  the  state- 
ment that  the  fathers  have  sinned  and  the  children  are 
beaten.  Thus  in  deference  to  the  ordinary  intelli- 
gence which  may  take  a  figure  of  speech  literally  all 
the  poetry  of  the  original  is  sacrificed,  and  the  ele- 
vated style  of  the  sacred  writers  is  reduced  to  com- 

_,,     ,^  monplace.     Where  the  honor  of  the 

The  Honor         ^      •  ,  1  r    1      1 

,    ,  Jewish  people  or  of  the  heroes  of 

-.  .  ,  x»  -I  biblical  times  is  involved  pains  are 
J  ewish  People       ,         ,  ,  .  ^        / 

,   ,  taken  that  nothmg  of  a  derogatory 

character  may  adhere  to  them.  Israel 
is  not  '  a  perverse  and  crooked  generation,'  nor  '  a 
foolish  people  and  unwise,'  but  '  a  generation  that 
hath  changed  its  deeds  and  is  become  changed,  and 
a  people  that  received  the  Law  and  learned  not  wis- 
dom.' Rachel  does  not  steal  her  father's  household 
gods,  she  merely  takes  them;  Jacob  does  not  steal 
Laban's  heart,  as  the  Hebrew  idiom  has  it,  he  just 
hides  from  him  his  departure ;  indeed  he  departs,  he 
does  not  flee ;  nor  does  Israel  flee  from  Egypt,  he  de- 
parts. Moses  does  not  marry  a  Cushite  woman,  but 
a  beautiful  woman;  Leah's  eyes  were  pretty,  not 
weak.    An  extreme  case  occurs  in  Genesis  49.  14  f., 


24  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

where  the  sense  of  the  original  is  turned  into  its 

very  opposite.     Instead  of  becoming  a  servant  under 

taskwork,  Issachar,  according  to  the  rendering  of 

Onkelos,  shall  conquer  the  provinces  of  nations  and 

destroy  their  inhabitants,  levying  tribute  upon  them 

that  are  left  over. 

....        In  all  the  points  mentioned  the  Tar- 
An  Ancient  ^ 

,  gum  carries  to  an  extreme  a  tendency 

which  we  meet  with  in  the  other  ancient 
versions;  it  will  therefore  be  unnecessary  to  revert 
to  the  subject  again.  The  process  indeed  ascends 
higher  up.  A  rabbinic  tradition  enumerates  eighteen 
(or  eleven)  cases  where  the  scribes  *  corrected  '  the 
original  reading.  If  Ezra  is  credited  with  introduc- 
ing the  corrections,  we  must  bear  in  mind  that  in  the 
opinion  of  the  rabbis  the  ready  scribe  who  headed 
the  Great  Synagogue  not  only  collected  the  sacred 
writings  but  also  edited  their  text.  As  a  rule  the  aim 
is  to  wipe  out  undignified  expressions  concerning  the 
Deity.  To  cite  one  example,  the  original  reading 
in  Habakkuk  i.  12  is  said  to  have  been  '  Thou  diest 
not '  in  the  place  of  the  present  correction :  *  we  die 
not'  There  is  doubt  in  the  minds  of  scholars  whether 
some  of  the  instances  adduced  by  the  rabbis  may  not 
rest  on  conjecture.  On  the  other  hand,  there  is  rea- 
son to  believe  that  the  text  has  been  altered  in  a  much 
greater  number  of  places.     Thus  where  the  sacred 


THE  TARGUM  25 


writers  spoke  of  cursing  God  the  text  was  made  to 
say  '  bless  '  for  *  curse.'  It  is  a  euphemism  pure  and 
simple.  Sometimes  the  alteration  betrays  itself  by 
its  form,  as  when  in  Judges  18.  30  a  suspended  '  n  ' 
marks  the  transformation  of  Moses,  the  ancestor  of 
the  Levite  who  ministered  at  the  idolatrous  shrine  of 
the  Danites,  into  Manasseh.  And  when  at  length  the 
text  had  become  stable,  alterations  which  no  longer 
could  be  introduced  into  the  text  itself  were  enjoined 
upon  the  reader  who  tacitly  substituted  a  different 
word  in  the  reading.  Thus  words  which  proved 
offensive  to  a  more  refined  taste  were  eliminated. 
The  culminating  point,  however,  was  reached  in  the 
translations,  official  or  unofficial.  The  ancients  were 
rather  distrustful  of  the  comprehension  of  the  com- 
mon people,  and  fidelity  to  the  letter  was  readily 
sacrificed  when  it  was  felt  that  the  scriptural  truth 
might  be  obscured  and  the  Word  of  God  be  brought 
into  disrepute  with  the  ignorant.  If  to-day  we  have 
largely,  though  not  wholly,  outgrown  the  apprehen- 
sions of  the  ancients,  it  is  because  we  have  a  laity 
trained  in  a  way  of  looking  upon  the  Scriptures  which 
is  itself  the  outcome  of  the  unremitting  efforts 
of  those  earlier  translators  and  their  authoritative 
sponsors. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  SEPTUAGINT  AND  THE  LATER  GREEK 
VERSIONS 

Westward  had  been  the  march  of  the  Aramaic  lan- 
guage, eastward  was  the  progress  of  the  Aramaic 
Targum.  The  Babylonian  Jewry,  with  antecedents 
dating  from  the  time  when  the  mighty  Assyrian  and 
Babylonian  monarchs  transplanted  the  conquered 
Israelites  and  Judeans,  was  linked  to  Palestine  by 

,  , .  .  ,  the  bond  of  lansruag'e  and  culture. 
Translations  into    _      ^         .  .      ,    ,        .     -r^  , 

In  the  spiritual  domain  Palestine 
other  Languages  ^  .  a  t>  u  ^     ■     ^^ 

was  the  giver  and  Babylonia  the 

J!  ,  ,  taker;   and   when   at   length   the 

Dispersed  Jewry.     ,,,.,,  ,  , 

leadership  had  passed  on  to  the 

Babylonian  schools,  their  scope  consisted  in  adapt- 
ing and  carrying  on  the  learning  of  Palestine 
rather  than  in  original  production.  -  Farther  to  the 
east  where  the  sway  of  Aramaic  terminated,  in 
Elam  and  in  Media,  the  Scriptures  were  read  in  the 
vernacular  of  those  countries ;  the  translations,  how- 
ever, are  no  longer  extant.  There  were  transla- 
tions in  many  more  languages,  and  the  rabbis  ex- 


SEPTUAGINT  AND  LATER  GREEK  VERSIONS     27 

pressly  enjoin  that  the  Scriptures  may  be  read  in 
'  all  tongues,'  that  is  in  all  the  tongues  spoken  by  Jews 
in  the  lands  of  their  dispersion.  In  the  second  cen- 
tury before  the  Christian  era  a  Jewish  poet  puts  in 
the  mouth  of  the  Sibyl  the  word  that  all  lands  and  all 
seas  are  full  of  Jews.  Whithersoever  a  Jew  migrated, 
he  was  welcomed  by  fellow- Jews;  everywhere  his 
God  went  with  him,  to  every  place  he  carried  with 
him  his  Scriptures.  The  rabbis  make  mention  of 
a  version  in  Coptic,  the  language  of  the  native  popu- 
lation of  Egypt  inhabiting  the  rural  districts,  and  it  is 
quite  possible  that  elements  of  this  version  are  im- 
bedded in  the  later  Church  version  of  the  Christian 
Copts  (chapter  III).  But  the  greatest  and  most 
important  of  all  the  translations  in  the  hands  of  dis- 
persed Jewry  was  undoubtedly  the  Greek.  The 
advent  of  Alexander  the  Great  and  the  reign  of  his 
successors  meant  outwardly  the  subjection  of  the 
Orient  by  the  Occident,  but  inwardly  the  West  really 
succumbed  to  the  East  which  since  time  immemorial 
had  exercised  a  potent  influence  on  the  European 
mind.  In  the  long  run  a  compromise  was  effected, 
but  in  the  chaos  of  diverse  nationalities  and  cultures 
the  Jew  stood  out  distinct.  He  entered  into  the 
sphere  of  Western  culture,  and  was  greatly  attracted 
by  it;  Greek  wisdom,  stubbornly  resisted  in  the  sec- 
ond pre-Christian  century,  later  on  invaded  Palestine ; 


28  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

but  even  iii  the  dispersion  where  the  powers  of  resist- 
ance were  weakest  and  the  allurements  of  the  Hellen- 
istic culture  greatest,  the  Jew  maintained  his  individu- 
ality, and  gave  back  to  the  world  in  thousandfold 
measure  what  he  took  from  it.  The  beauty  of 
Japheth,  the  father  of  Javan,  dwelt  in  the  tents  of 
Shem.  Through  the  medium  of  the  Greek  the  liter- 
ature of  the  Jew  became  the  possession  of  mankind. 
Without  the  Greek  translation  of  the  Scriptures  the 
Christian  conversion  of  Europe  would  have  been 
well  nigh  impossible.  The  rabbis  recognized  the 
fact,  and  from  their  subsequent  experience  of  the 
havoc  wrought  to  the  fortunes  of  the  Jewish  people 
through  the  Christian  schism  they  may  be  pardoned 
for  likening  the  day  on  which  the  famous  translation 
saw  its  light  to  the  day  on  which  the  golden  calf  was 
fashioned.  A  fast-day  in  Palestine  and  in  the  lands 
swayed  by  its  spiritual  dominion,  it  was  a  day  of 
rejoicing  from  year  to  year  in  Alexandria  where  the 
epoch-making  event  occurred.  This  fact  will  serve  to 
gauge  the  diversity  of  sentiment  in  Palestine  with  its 
eastern  dependencies  and  in  the  colonies  exposed  to 
the  immediate  influence  of  Greek  culture. 

The  re-entrance  of  the  Jev^  into  the  land  of  the 
Pharaohs  began  at  an  early  period.  Egypt  had 
horses,  and  Palestine  had  more  people  than  it  could 
support,  and  so  the  Judean  kings  from  Solomon 


SEPTUAGINT  AND  LATER  GREEK  VERSIONS     29 

downward  traded  their  subjects  for  horseflesh.    Jew- 
ish soldiers  served  in  the  army  of  Psammetich  II 
(594-589  B.  c.)   against  the  Ethiopians.     A  large 
.  ,  body  of  Jews  migrated  to  Egypt  after  the 

«  .^1         X    murder  of  Gedaliah,  overruling  the  oppo- 
Settlement  ^  ^         •  ,      ,  ^    , 

.  sition  of  Jeremiah  who  was  made  to  ac- 

company the  exiles.  Long  before  the 
conquest  of  Egypt  by  Cambyses  Jews  had  been  set- 
tled as  military  colonists  on  the  southern  frontier  of 
the  realm.  Of  forceful  deportations  in  the  Persian 
period  and  later  by  the  first  of  the  Ptolemies  we  read 
in  ancient  writers;  as  late  as  Roman  times  Jews 
inhabiting  a  Syrian  village  know  themselves  as 
Persians  in  original  allegiance.  The  Jew  was  in 
Egypt  before  the  Greek,  but  under  the  second 
Ptolemy  already  the  large  and  influential  Jewish  com- 
munity of  Alexandria  began  to  exchange  their  Ara- 
maic speech  for  the  language  of  the  governing  race 
which  was  the  Greek. 

17  •  4.1  It  is  in  the  reign  of  the  second 

^   .  .  ,  Ptolemy,     surnamed     Philadelphus 

of  Aristeas  on     ^  ^      /  ^     ,        ,  ,    . 

^  .  .  (28c;-247  B.  c),  that  the  translation 

the  Ongin  \  ,^   7^      ^^^'  ,  .   .       ^      , 

of  the  Law  (Pentateuch)  into  Greek 

„    ,       .  ^  is  placed  by  the  circumstantial  nar- 

Septuagint.  .      ,        -^  ,     -^  .    ,       .   .    . 

rative  known  as  the  Epistle  of  Aris- 
teas which  purports  to  be  a  contemporary  record  by 
one  of  the  king's  courtiers.     Nay,  according  to  the 


30  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

Story,  the  initiative  proceeded  from  the  king  or  rather 
the  king's  librarian,  Demetrius  of  Phalerum,  who 
advised  that  a  copy  of  the  Law  of  the  Jews  should 
be  deposited  in  the  royal  collection  of  books  then 
already  numbering  upward  of  two  hundred  thousand 
volumes.  An  embassy,  headed  by  the  captain  of  the 
royal  bodyguard  and  Aristeas,  is  dispatched  to  Jeru- 
salem with  rich  presents  and  a  letter  to  the  high  priest 
Eleazar  who  forwards  to  the  king  a  copy,  richly 
executed  in  golden  letters,  by  the  hand  of  seventy-two 
elders,  six  from  each  of  the  tribes  of  Israel,  men 
learned  in  the  law  and  able  to  translate  the  Hebrew 
into  Greek.  After  presentation  to  the  king  the  com- 
pany of  translators  is  set  to  work  on  an  island,  far 
away  from  the  noise  of  the  city.  Every  day  they  all 
translate,  each  one  by  himself,  a  portion  of  the  Law, 
and  then  they  meet  to  compare  their  results  and  to 
agree  upon  a  common  form.  In  seventy-two  sessions, 
each  lasting  until  the  ninth  hour,  the  work  is  com- 
pleted. Demetrius  causes  the  translation  to  be  read 
to  the  Jewish  community,  who  receive  it  warmly  and 
beg  that  a  copy  be  placed  in  their  hands.  A  curse  is 
pronounced  upon  any  one  who  shall  make  alterations 
in  a  work  of  such  excellence  and  accuracy.  The 
Greek  Pentateuch  is  then  read  to  the  king,  who  ex- 
presses delight  and  surprise,  greets  the  book  with  a 
gesture  of  reverence,  and  orders  that  care  be  taken 
of  it  and  that  it  be  sacredly  guarded. 


SEPTUAGINT  AND  LATER  GREEK  VERSIONS     31 

So  far  the  story,  which  distinctly  asserts  that  the 

translators,  working  singly  and  with  varying  results, 

composed  their  differences  in  common  sessions,  a 

proceeding  natural  enough  with  a  company  of  trans- 

lators.       Subsequently,    when    the 

„,,,.,        ^      numerous  variations  in  the  manu- 
Embellishments.         .  ,    ,  ,    .  , 

scripts  of  the  translation  were  ob- 
served, it  was  held  that  the  translators  worked  in 
groups  of  two,  and  that  under  the  text  divergent  or 
alternate  renderings  were  registered.  In  itself  it  is 
a  plausible  conjecture  indeed  that,  much  after  the 
fashion  of  the  King  James  Version  (chapter  V),  the 
text  was  accompanied  by  a  margin  in  which  not  only 
the  rejected  renderings  favored  by  a  minority  of  the 
company  found  a  place,  but  also  the  more  accurate 
or  literal  rendition  of  the  original  when  in  accommo- 
dation to  the  genius  of  the  Greek  language  a  freer 
paraphrase  had  been  adopted  in  the  text.  In  direct 
contrast  stand  the  still  later  embellishments,  accord- 
ing to  which  each  translator  worked  in  a  cell  by  him- 
self, and  yet  their  several  efforts  were  found  to  be 
identical  to  the  letter — a  miracle  indeed  which  has 
not  happened  since  to  any  other  company  of  Bible 
translators!  But  then  the  notion  prevailed  that 
the  seventy-two  translators  were  inspired  prophets. 
Another  point  in  which  a  later  generation  disre- 
garded the  express  language  of  Aristeas  is  the  inclu- 


32  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

sion  of  all  the  rest  of  the  Scriptures  in  the  translation 

executed  under  royal  auspices. 

Modern  scholars  are  quite  agreed  that  the  Epistle 

of  Aristeas  cannot  be  the  work  of  the  Gentile  courtier, 

,_  ,  but  is  rather  the  composition  of  a  Tew.    The 

Modem  ^   ,  ^    .         r   ,     x        • 

story  of  the  translation  of  the  Law  is  really 

incidental  to  the  central  theme  which  is  a 
description  of  the  Jewish  people  and  their  land  and 
a  glorification  of  the  wisdom  of  the  Jews.  Naturally 
the  praise  would  be  more  effective  when  coming  from 
a  Gentile  whom  the  writer  impersonates.  A  few 
errors  in  detail  are  pointed  out,  but  in  the  main  it  is 
conceded  that  the  author  or  the  source  excerpted  by 
him  betrays  a  remarkable  familiarity  with  the  court 
life  of  the  early  Ptolemies.  That  Philadelphus  who 
was  a  patron  of  learning  should  evince  an  interest  in 
the  Law  of  the  Jews  need  not  be  regarded  as  improb- 
able. Nevertheless  the  story  is  rejected  as  a  fabri- 
cation, and  it  is  thought  more  plausible  that  the 
initiative  belongs  to  the  Jewish  community  of  Alex- 
andria experiencing  a  need  for  a  version  in  the  Greek. 
As  in  the  case  of  Mendelssohn's  translation  into  High 
German  at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  (cha- 
ter  VI),  the  leaders  of  the  community,  by  means  of 
the  Greek  translation,  set  about  to  prepare  the  Jew 
for  his  entry  into  the  Greek  life  of  the  city.  If  we 
may  at  all  lay  the  scheme  at  the  door  of  the  Jewish 


#«ucecMer>^ci<xioKKi^ 


-M I  x».«rvu  f  >  o  c.K*«>^- 

T*  N  c  n  O  KJ>  M -T  M  c  »JjJ  V 
\Jat0C  KXji.noB.^ic'PUi- 
T-WmikffiMHOA'ic*!',  I'' 

■f.o. 


O  *.  n  TO  M  ^  M  o  ^TTOYT* ' 

XHcCm  «»u>nQY'^'^H 
T5C*c5rfc.(  rln-rKHMCrk- 
OlYTWc  k  r>»  J  c  o  M  ceTxi 

TH  H  Wf  f  A.-rft Tf  (VmK*! 
-r«  MM  *  f  ■^T"  i^M-OH  H  • 


K*j»i>.ri**CTxi  n  &e-6x 
epu>n<»Y#»-'*>«"oo»i5'« 

CK M  N  N ►r»^«'M  rk*4«»< 


"■JJTHsJl  KtJK>J<X«>.rT>>. 


CM  4m  kx-^vcWt-w  in 
Kj}OY'|tCX§rj-i»«»ro. 


kiklMIOM-  MfM>t 


inxMryci  Mi»TJ«-r»»>rY 


kn  ».  ky«;m  i'xh/w&ti  y'  ■ 
*<ai>f  f  fcjjiTi  CM  o  Y«Y"»r ' 

K><»kfTo'o«C  VIM  Kfcliclx' 

f  i.M-ri  ctiOY"  wwfc-i  TM, 
M  K-r>  x».YTiS>p<"i.ioioT.' 
M  «  M  ocToy  Y*- ^■"'n*  Y 
»Ku-nc>-<  >5y  XKK<»>>r-ro' 
«-r».i  iiuc  8  c  n  «>».<*X»J 

i-Y  ~'' Y  ^  ••-•^  <C»*.f  TO  c  I,. 

JkMKViMK»OK6iYi<4»»c'*ni">'     C* 
'^      M!-Y*'>.r«>ri««ic-r>»««f~ 

I»*Y'T-W  CfN  »K«IM>vr'f  AM 

KV'^T7:4>HiKe|KijOY       /■ 
Ki»MY»'a.jXMcYW*wru>rh      V" 

>' ■=»Y*  H  M '.eroki  T£c4' 
MXrtur»N  KV^')  cTM  w  e 


T^.mtanoHi 


CYKM"6-«niiij«»«»«  A  o  1 0 


lOY 


CODEX  VATICANUS— 4TH   CENT. 
The  most  ancient  of  the  manuscripts  of  the  Septuagint 


SEPTUAGINT  AND  LATER  GREEK  VERSIONS     33 

community,  another  motive  will  have  played  into  it, 
namely,  to  open  up  the  Jewish  Law  to  the  inspection 
of  the  Gentile  population  and  to  convince  the  world 
that  the  Jews  possessed  a  culture  which  rivalled  the 
wisdom  of  Hellas.  It  is  quite  possible  that  a  copy 
was  presented  to  the  king  or  that  royal  sanction  was 
obtained  for  the  translation.  It  must  be  added  that 
the  Epistle  of  Aristeas  speaks  of  earlier  but  inade- 
quate efforts  at  translation  and  that,  while  the  Tal- 
mud records  the  legend  of  the  seventy-two  transla- 
tors, it  also  registers  a  tradition  ascribing  the  version 
to  five  elders. 

Internal  evidence  shows  that  the  five  books  of  the 
Law  could  not  have  been  translated  by  one  person. 

„,  ,  -  There  is  a  difference  of  style  and  manner 
Style  and      .         ,    .  .    .  •'  ,  ^ 

_.  .  of  rendermg  pomtmg  to  a  number  of 

translators,  just  how  many  remains  to  be 

ascertained.     On  the  whole  the  translation  must  be 

pronounced  a  success.     It  oscillates  between  a  freer 

method  of  rendition  and  a  slavish  adherence  to  the 

letter.    The  language  employed  was  not  the  classical 

Greek,  but  the  Hellenistic  dialect  which  was  then 

rapidly   supplanting   the   older   varieties   of   Greek 

speech  and  becoming  the  uniform  literary  vehicle 

among  the  cultured  classes.     Naturally  the  diction 

of  the  Scriptures  offered  difficulties  when  it  had  to 

be  cast  in  a  foreign  mould ;  but  then  the  newer  Greek 


34  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

had  developed  many  points  of  style  resembling  the 
biblical.  At  all  events  it  was  a  happy  inspiration  to 
let  the  inherent  beauty  of  the  simple  diction  of  the 
original  shine  through  the  alien  garb,  and  in  this 
respect  the  manner  of  those  early  translators  became 
the  model  for  similar  efforts  in  the  future.  It  may 
be  that  a  Greek  with  more  classic  tastes  might  find 
the  thinly  disguised  Hebraisms  barbaric ;  at  the  same 
time  there  attached  to  the  translation  the  merit  of 
bringing  the  peculiar  literature  of  the  Jew  to  the  com- 
prehension of  the  plain  people.  In  Alexandria  as 
well  as  in  Palestine  the  Bible,  whether  in  Greek  or 
Aramaic,  was  to  be  the  people's  book. 

_,  In  the  main  the  translators  under- 

TI16 

_       1  4.     J  stood  their  Hebrew  well,  and  admirably 

__  ,  ,  hit  the  sense  of  the  original.  Tradition 
Knowledge  ,         ,    ,        .„       ,.   . 

was  on  the  whole  still  a  livmg  thmg. 

The  meaning  of  words  was  derived  from 

the  dictionary  of  life ;  the  translators  made,  or  rather 

were,  their  own  dictionary.    The  vicissitudes  through 

which  the  Jewish  people  had  passed,  the  change  of 

speech  being  not  the  least  of  them,  will  explain  how  it 

happened  that  at  a  given  point  tradition  had  been 

cut  in  twain  and  much  was  suffered  to  be  effaced 

from  the  memory  of  the  Jews.    In  all  such  cases  the 

translators  sought  to  approximate  the  true  meaning. 

Take  for  instance  the  rarer  words  denoting  precious 


SEPTUAGINT  AND  LATER  GREEK  VERSIONS     35 

Stones  or  certain  animals  and  plants  which  were 
identified  with  a  varying  degree  of  certainty  or  proba- 
bility. There  is  nothing  improbable  in  the  notion 
that  the  translators  came  from  Palestine.  Like  the 
translator  of  Sirach  in  a  subsequent  period,  they 
acquired  or  perfected  their  knowledge  of  Greek  on 
settling  in  Egypt;  and  like  the  same  disciple  of  the 
wise,  they  occasionally  committed  those  blunders  that 
mar  a  piece  of  work  otherwise  meritorious.  Cer- 
tainly from  the  schools  in  Palestine  came  those  bits 
of  interpretation  evolved  by  generations  of  expound- 
ers that  cannot  be  said  to  be  obvious  in  themselves. 
And  as  the  Palestinian  interpretation  was  largely 
expressed  through  the  oral  Targum,  the  many  coin- 
cidences between  the  latter  and  the  Greek  version 
become  intelligible.  At  times  the  translators  may 
have  indulged  in  concessions  to  the  spirit  of  the 
time  and  environment.  The  talmudic  tradition  enu- 
merates thirteen  deliberate  alterations  introduced  by 
the  translators;  only  a  few,  however,  may  be  veri- 
fied from  the  extant  manuscripts  of  the  version. 
The  most  interesting  case  is  the  circumlocution 
'  rough-foot '  for  '  hare  '  in  Leviticus  ii.  6,  because 
the  ordinary  Greek  appellation  of  the  hare  (lagos), 
it  was  feared,  might  be  offensive  to  the  royal  family, 
the  first  Ptolemy  being  surnamed  Lagi.  As  the 
rabbis   expressed  themselves,  the  king's  wife    (or 


36  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

mother)  bore  the  name  of  hare.  Traces  of  the  influ- 
ence of  Greek  philosophy  have  been  detected,  but 
they  are  insignificant. 

The  translation  of  the  seventy-two  reputed  elders 
has  come  to  be  named  for  short  that  of  the  Seventy 
or  Septuagint  (from  the  Latin  septua- 


Translations 

not  only  to  the  version  of  the  Penta 


of  the  other    ^'"'''  =  seventy).     The  name  clung 


Parts  of  the 

«    .  ^  teuch,  but  also  to  that  of  the  whole  of 

Scnptures. 

the  Scriptures.     For  in  due  sequel  the 

other  parts  of  the  Scriptures  likewise  were  translated 
into  Greek,  naturally  at  different  times  and  by  differ- 
ent hands.  In  the  whole,  certain  groups  of  books 
stand  out  clearly  as  the  work  of  single  translators. 
It  goes  without  saying  that  the  manner  of  translation 
differs,  ranging  from  the  freest  paraphrase,  as  in 
Proverbs. and  Job,  to  the  most  slavishly  literal  trans- 
lation, as  in  Samuel  and  Kings.  The  translator  of 
Job  excels  as  a  Greek  writer,  showing  an  acquaint- 
ance with  the  master-products  of  Greek  poetry.  He 
considered  himself  at  liberty  to  shorten  the  original 
considerably,  omitting  some  eight  hundred  lines. 
Isaiah  is  the  worst  translated  book.  Just  when  the 
whole  of  the  Scriptures  was  completed  in  Greek 
is  a  matter  of  uncertainty.  Roughly  speaking  the 
process  of  translating  the  Bible  into  Greek  covered  a 
period  of  a  century  or  a  century  and  a  half.     When 


SEPTUAGINT  AND  LATER  GREEK  VERSIONS     Z7 

the  grandson  of  Jesus  son  of  Sirach  arrived  in  Egypt 
in  the  year  132  b.  c,  he  found  ^  the  Law  and  the 
Prophets  and  the  remainder  of  the  books  '  in  Greek. 
The  Law  and  the  Prophets  are  definite  terms  cover- 
ing the  first  two  parts  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  the 
second  division  containing  not  only  the  prophetical 
writings  (Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  Ezekiel,  the  Twelve), 
but  also  the  historical  books  (Joshua-Kings)  which 
incorporate  records  of  prophetic  activity  and,  more- 
over, were  believed  to  have  been  compiled  by  inspired 
prophets.  As  for  '  the  remainder  of  the  books,'  the 
appellation  is  no  more  vague  than  the  name  Ketubim, 
*  Writings,'  by  which  the  third  division  goes.  Inci- 
dentally the  Siracid  reveals  that  the  purpose  of  trans- 
lation was  to  enable  those  that  resided  in  a  foreign 
land  to  obtain  instruction  and  wisdom  from  books 
_    ,    .  otherwise  beyond  their  comprehension. 

Inclusion  ,         ,  ,  ,,r.       ,  r         ^ 

«        ,  And   so   the   Wisdom   of   the   son   of 

Sirach,  which  in  Palestine  and  Baby- 

,,     ,^  ,  Ionia  hovered  on  the  borderland  between 

the  Hebrew  ,,  1        j    ., 

p  writmgs   avowedly   sacred   and   those 

which  remained  outside  the  biblical  col- 
lection, found  a  place  in  the  Greek  Bible,  and  with  it 
many  more  books,  some  of  which  were  from  the 
outset  composed  in  Greek  and  were  therefore  un- 
known in  Palestine,  while  others,  though  originally 
written  in  Hebrew  or  Aramaic,  had  not  been  accorded 


38  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

scriptural  rank  at  home.  All  these  writings  com- 
prise, so  to  speak,  the  fourth  and  fifth  part  of  the 
Scriptures,  known  as  Apocrypha  or  books  with- 
drawn from  public  use  and  at  best  tolerated  only  for 
private  reading,  and  Pseudepigrapha,  i.  e.,  spurious 
writings  assigned  to  authors  of  the  past  and  for  the 
most  part  sectarian  products  deviating  from  the  path 
of  conduct  and  doctrine  marked  out  by  the  authori- 
tative leaders  in  Palestine.  If  we  to-day  are  in  a  posi- 
tion to  read  in  the  First  Book  of  the  Maccabees,  for 
instance,  the  exploits  of  Judas  Maccabeus, '  who  made 
Jacob  glad  with  his  acts,  and  his  memorial  is  blessed 
for  ever,'  we  owe  a  debt  of  gratitude  to  the  Christian 
Church  which,  having  received  the  Greek  Scriptures 
at  the  hands  of  the  Greek-speaking  Jews  of  the 
empire,  with  pious  zeal  kept  them  intact,  and  rescued 
from  oblivion  literary  records  of  near-scriptural  rank. 
,     _  The  passing  on  of  the  Greek  Bible  to 

the  Christian  Church  was  itself  the  cause 

^     .  of  the  rise  of  a  series  of  newer  Greek 

Versions.  .  j  ^-        r       4.1, 

versions    or    revisions    dating    for    the 

most  part  from  the  second  Christian  century.  The 
Jews  looked  askance  at  the  older  translation  which 
was  marred  by  evident  blunders  and  moreover  dif- 
fered at  times  widely  from  the  recognized  text  of  the 
original.  Here  and  there,  too,  there  had  crept  into 
the  copies  Christian  interpolations,  as  when  in  Psalm 


SEPTUAGINT  AND  LATER  GREEK  VERSIONS     39 

96.  10  the  words  '  from  the  cross  '  were  added  to  the 
sentence  *  the  Lord  reigneth.'  Yet  Greek  was  the 
language  of  the  Jew  of  Asia  Minor,  Northern 
Africa,  and  Europe.  The  first  place  among  the  later 
Greek  versions  unquestionably  belongs  to  the  effort 
..  of  Aquila,  a  proselyte  from  Pontus,  who 
worked  under  the  eye  of  the  celebrated  Pales- 
tinian teachers.  Rabbi  Eliezer  and  Rabbi  Joshua. 
Though  his  mastery  of  the  Greek  language  was  such 
as  only  a  native  Greek  could  command,  he  chose  with 
painstaking  fidelity  to  produce  a  word-for-word 
translation  in  which  not  only  the  sequence  of  words 
in  the  original  was  faithfully  reproduced,  but  even 
Hebrew  word  formations  were  imitated,  and  every 
particle  received  an  equivalent.  The  effect  of  the 
whole  was  naturally  barbaric,  and  it  was  said  of  him 
that  he  translated  *  not  words,  but  syllables.'  The 
Palestinian  authorities,  however,  lauded  the  trans- 
lator in  superlative  terms;  the  accuracy  with  which 
the  original  was  followed  outweighed  all  consider- 
ations of  style.  The  consecration  of  the  letter  was 
the  Synagogue's  weapon  of  defence  against  the  nas- 
cent Church ;  while  the  copies  of  the  Septuagint  made 
by  Christian  hands  became  more  and  more  disfigured 
by  scribal  corruptions,  the  text  of  the  original  was 
zealously  guarded  by  the  Synagogue,  and  the  scribes 
lovingly  counted  every  letter  that  no  alteration  should 


40  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

creep  in.  Moreover,  the  Septuagint,  whether  from 
the  start  or  in  consequence  of  Christian  manipula- 
tions, contained  renderings  which  were  offensive  to 
the  Jew,  as  when  in  Isaiah  7.  14  the  mother  of 
Immanuel  was  spoken  of  as  a  *  virgin.'  Aquila 
naturally  substituted,  in  accord  with  the  Hebrew,  '  a 
young  woman ' ;  he  equally  avoided  as  a  rendering 
for  '  Messiah  '  the  Greek  Christos,  which  had  become 
a  name  imparting  to  the  Church  its  very  appella- 
tion, selecting  in  its  stead  an  inoffensive  synonym. 
Aquila's  translation  continued  in  use  among  Greek- 
speaking  Jews  to  a  late  date,  and  the  emperor  Jus- 
tinian (527-565)  granted  permission  for  its  employ- 
ment in  the  synagogues. 

«  ,  To  offset  Aquila's  literalism,  Sym- 

Syminachiis.  ,  x      •  ,     ^,    •    •  r  \ 

machus,    a    Jewish    Christian    of    the 

Ebionite  sect,  produced  a  translation  which  was  in 
the  nature  of  a  paraphrase  aiming  rather  at  the  sense 
than  at  a  verbal  rendering.  Nevertheless  he  made 
frequent  use  of  Aquila,  exactly  as  was  done  by 
Theodotion  ^"^^^^^  contemporary,  Theodotion,  like 
Aquila  himself  a  convert  to  Judaism, 
who,  however,  struck  a  happy  medium,  combining 
elegance  of  diction  with  fidelity  to  the  original.  These 
three  translations  or  rather  revisions  of  the  Septua- 
gint— there  were  several  others  whose  authors  re- 
mained unknown — were  made  use  of  by  the  two 


SEPTUAGINT  AND  LATER  GREEK  VERSIONS     41 

great  fathers  of  the  Church,  Origen  (185-254)  and 
Jerome  (346-420),  in  their  work  of  improving  the 
current  Church  Bible.  Though  both  are  reported  as 
having  studied  Hebrew,  Origen  turning  for  advice 
to  Rabbi  Hillel  brother  of  Rabbi  Judah  II  the  Patri- 
arcii  and  Jerome  having  for  his  teacher  a  scholar 
by  the  name  of  Barannina,  they  relied  for  their 
information  about  the  contents  of  the  Hebrew  origi- 
nal, or,  as  they  expressed  themselves,  the  '  Hebrew 
^  .  ,  truth,'  mainly  upon  the  Three,  Aquila 
-p-,'.'  f  serving  as  a  dictionary,  as  it  were,  Sym- 
,      -,      ,      machus  as  a  commentary,  and  Theodo- 

„    .  ^  tion  as  a  translation.    Orig^en  transcribed 

Scnptures.     ,  .  „         ,  ° 

them  (as  well  as  the  other  anonymous 

versions)  in  his  monumental  edition  of  the  Greek 
Bible,  where  Aquila  occupied  the  third  column  next 
to  the  Hebrew  in  the  original  square  characters  and 
in  Greek  transliteration,  thus  enabling  the  student 
to  pronounce  every  Hebrew  word  and  at  once  to 
ascertain  its  meaning;  then  came  the  free  Symma- 
chus,  then  the  text  of  the  Septuagint,  then  Theo- 
dotion,  then  in  the  remaining  columns  the  other 
versions  wherever  they  were  available.  The  Septua- 
gint text  occupying  the  fifth  column  was  entirely 
recast  so  as  to  square  with  the  *  Hebrew  truth  ' :  gaps 
were  filled  up  from  the  Three,  in  particular  from 
Theodotion;  additions  not  found  in  the  Hebrew, 


42  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

though  copied,  were  marked  as  unwarranted ;  proper 
names  made  unrecognizable  in  the  current  manu- 
scripts were  adjusted  to  the  Hebrew  text  in  the  later 
pronunciation;  other  corrections  were  boldly  intro- 
duced ;  the  sequence  of  the  Hebrew  was  restored,  not 
only  where  the  Hebrew  text  had  been  disturbed  on  a 
large  scale,  as  in  Exodus  and  Jeremiah,  but  almost 
in  every  line.  The  bulky  work,  known  chiefly  as 
Hexapla  (a  book  of  six  columns),  was  deposited  in 
the  library  of  Caesarea,  the  nucleus  of  which  had  been 
formed  by  Origen  out  of  the  biblical  collection  pos- 
sessed by  Symmachus  and  acquired  by  a  certain 
Juliana ;  there  it  was  inspected  by  Jerome,  but  after 

_,  .  a  century  or  so  all  traces  of  it  were  lost. 
Remains  .   .         , 

-    ,  A  few  leaves  of  a  copy  containmg  the 

Psalms  were  recently  discovered  in  Milan ; 

other  fragments  were  found  in  the  Cairo 
Genizah,  the  contents  of  which  it  was  the  merit  of 
the  late  Dr.  Schechter  to  discover  and  transfer  to  the 
University  of  Cambridge;  from  the  same  Genizah 
came  the  long  lost  Hebrew  original  of  Ecclesiasticus, 
as  also  a  fragment  of  the  translation  of  Aquila.  With 
the  exception  of  Theodotion's  Daniel  which  was  read 
in  Christian  churches  in  preference  to  the  older  but 
freer  Greek  version,  and  which  is  therefore  extant  as 
a  whole,  all  our  other  knowledge  of  the  later  Greek 
versions  comes  from  stray  notes  on  the  margin  of 


Mfli\  hvsmk 


i 


PALIMPSEST  OF  THE  CAIRO  GENIZAH 

The  upper   writing    in    Hebrew   of  the  11th    cent.,  the    lower    in    Greek  of  the 

6th  cent.     Contains  Aquila's  version 


SEPTUAGINT  AND  LATER  GREEK  VERSIONS     43 

Septuagint  manuscripts,  excerpts  made  by  learned 
owners  from  Origen's  great  work,  and  is  naturally- 
fragmentary.  It  is  after  all  mainly  to  the  Christian 
Church  that  we  owe  whatever  knowledge  of  them  we 
may  possess;  for,  while,  as  the  Cairo  leaves  prove, 
in  the  earlier  Christian  centuries  copies  of  the  Greek 
translations  later  than  the  Septuagint  were  current 
in  Egypt,  subsequently,  when  the  Greek  had  ceased 
to  be  spoken  by  Egyptian  Jewry,  the  parchment  was 
turned  by  copyists  to  a  use  nearer  home  after  the  ink 
had  been  washed  away. 

But  before  we  dismiss  the  subject  of  Greek  trans- 
lations of  the  Scriptures,  mention  must  be  made  of 
a  learned  effort  by  a  Jew  of  the  four- 


Medieval 

classical   (Attic)   Greek   (the  Aramaic 


teenth  century  to  render  the  Bible  into 
Jewish  -^ 


Translations  r  x^     •  1  1  •     1     t-^     • 

•     p      v         passages  of  Daniel  he  gave  m  the  Doric 

dialect)  ;  naturally  he  embodied  the 
results  of  Jewish  exegetical  labors  then  accessible 
(chapter  IV).  On  the  other  hand,  the  translation 
in  modern  Greek  and  in  Hebrew  characters  which 
accompanies  the  Hebrew  text  of  the  Pentateuch 
printed  in  Constantinople  1547  (see  below,  chapter 
IV)  was  to  serve  a  practical  purpose,  *  that  it  might 
be  useful  to  young  Jews  and  that  they  might  accus- 
tom themselves  to  speak  correctly.' 


CHAPTER  III 

ANCIENT  CHRISTIAN  TRANSLATIONS 

For  nearly  two  centuries  the  Christian  Church 

knew  no  other  Scriptures  than  the  collection  taken 

over  from  the  Jews.     Only  towards  the  end  of  the 

second  century  was  the  New  Testament  placed  on 

an  equal  footing  with  the  Old,  and  both  together 

made  up  the  Bible  of  the  Catholic  Church.     The 

two  oldest  Christian  translations  of  the 

_       ,  ,.  Hebrew  Scriptures,  dating  from,  or  at 

Translations.    ,         .      ,    .^     .     .        "^         ,:      ^ 
least  m  their  begmnmgs  ascendmg  to, 

the  second  century,  are  the  Syriac  and  the  Latin. 
The  Syriac  language  is  really  a  variety  of  the  Ara- 
maic ;  it  was  spoken  in  the  north  of  Syria  and  Upper 
Mesopotamia,  and  it  survives  to  this  day  in  certain 
circumscribed  localities  in  a  multitude  of  modern 
forms,  chief  among  which  is  the  Urmi  dialect,  first 
reduced  to  writing  in  the  year  1836  by  Dr.  Perkins, 
an  American  Presbyterian  missionary,  who  trans- 
lated the  Bible  afresh  into  it.  There  are  several 
translations  in  the  older  Syriac,  but  the  oldest  and 
noblest,  frequently  called  '  the  Queen  of  Versions/  is 


ANCIENT  CHRISTIAN  TRANSLATIONS  45 

known  as  Peshitta,  which  means  '  the  Simple/  that  is 
the  common  and  widely  current.  It  was  made  from 
the  Hebrew  with  the  assistance  of  Jews,  combining 
with  fidelity  to  the  original  elegance  of  style  and 
TTi  P  h'H  en^bodying,  notably  in  the  Pentateuch, 
elements  of  interpretation  rooted  in 
Jewish  tradition.  The  translation  of  Chronicles 
reads  like  a  Targum,  just  as  conversely  the  Targum 
to  Proverbs  was  borrowed  by  the  Jews  from  the 
Peshitta  (chapter  I).  Intercourse  between  Jews  and 
Christians  was  facilitated  in  those  regions  by  the 
employment  of  the  same  vernacular.  Nevertheless 
the  version  as  we  have  it  to-day  is  largely  intermixed 
with  alterations  made  on  the  basis  of  the  Septuagint 
which  was  the  Church  Bible.  The  Psalter  in  particu- 
lar is  permeated  with  Greek  influence,  as  is  natural 
with  a  book  used  in  the  liturgy. 

Obscure  though  the  beginnings  of  the  Latin 
Church  translation  may  be,  it  is  clear  that  the  need 
for  it  arose  in  the  provinces,  specifically  in  North 

_,  Africa,  rather  than  in  Rome  where  Greek 

The 

c\M\  T  +•  ^'^^  ^^^  language  of  the  Church  in  its 
early  days.  It  is  really  not  permissible 
to  speak  of  one  translation ;  parallel  versions  cropped 
up  in  various  localities.  We  have  the  testimony  of 
Augustine  (354-430)  that  as  different  copies  of  the 
Greek  were  chanced  upon,  diverse  translations  were 


46  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

made  with  varying  degrees  of  skill.  What  is  common 
to  all  of  them  is  the  character  of  the  Latin  which  is  not 
the  classical,  but  of  the  rustic  variety  such  as  was 
used  in  the  popular  speech  throughout  the  confines 
of  the  empire,  leading  over  to  the  later  forms  known 
as  the  Romanic  languages.  The  new  religion — 
Christianity — had  been  embraced  by  the  humble  and 
poor,  the  scriptural  message  was  for  the  people,  the 
broad  masses,  and  it  was  fitting  that  the  Bible  every- 
where should  speak  their  language.  As  the  Church 
in  the  capital  became  Latinized,  the  divergences  in 
the  copies  of  the  Latin  version  and  the  crudity  of  its 

_  ,        diction  called  for  a  revision.    At  the  bid- 

Jerome  s 

_,     .  .  diner  of  the  Roman  bishop  Damasus  the 

Revisions.         °  ,       ,        ,       x  ,     ^ 

task  was  undertaken  by  Jerome    (346- 

420).  While  in  Rome  (in  the  year  383)  Jerome 
slightly  retouched  the  Psalter,  which  revision  Dama- 
sus at  once  introduced  in  the  liturgy;  it  is  still  in 
use  at  St.  Peter's.  A  second  and  more  thorough 
revision  on  the  basis  of  Origen's  text  in  the  Hexapla 
(chapter  II)  was  executed  nine  years  later  at  Bethle- 
hem; this  edition,  known  as  the  Gallican  Psalter, 
gained  first  admission  in  Gaul ;  it  is  also  the  rendition 
incorporated  in  the  ordinary  editions  of  the  Vulgate. 
In  Palestine,  however,  Jerome  set  about  to  acquire  a 
knowledge  of  the  Hebrew  by  the  aid  of  Jewish 
teachers,  and  under  their  guidance,  as  well  as  with  the 


ANCIENT  CHRISTIAN  TRANSLATIONS  47 

help  of  the  later  Greek  versions  (chapter  II),  he  pro- 
duced a  new  translation  which  under  the  name  Vul- 
gate was  destined  to  become  the  acknowledged  Bible 
of  the  Catholic  Church  and  of  Western  Europe. 
Altogether  fifteen  years  were  spent  on  that  work,  the 
various  books  coming  out  at  intervals  in  response  to 

„,  „  ,  ,  the  prompting-s  of  friends.  The  Solo- 
The  Vulgate.  \        ^.  .^  ,         .       , 

monic  writmgs   were  done   m  three 

days,  Tobit  in  one  day,  Judith  over  night,  the  two 
latter  from  an  Aramaic  copy  which  his  Jewish 
teacher  read  off  in  Hebrew  translation,  while  a  scribe 
took  down  the  Latin  at  Jerome's  dictation.  The 
Psalter  he  rendered  now,  for  the  third  time,  from 
the  Hebrew;  this  newer  version,  however,  remained 
outside  the  Vulgate.  Certain  of  the  apocryphal 
books  (chapter  II)  were  left  by  Jerome  in  their  old 
unrevised  form.  Like  all  innovations,  Jerome's  new 
translation  gained  ground  but  slowly;  but  as  time 
went  on  it  superseded  the  older  Latin  versions,  until 
at  length  in  the  fourth  session  of  the  Council  of  Trent 
(April  8,  1546)  it  was  pronounced  the  only  authentic 
Latin  translation  to  be  used  in  public  lessons,  dispu- 
tations, sermons,  and  expositions.  Unfortunately 
the  text  was  vitiated  through  admixture  of  readings 
from  the  Old  Latin,  and  to  this  day  the  Catholic 
Church  has  been  solicitous  in  purifying  the  version. 
In  the  main  the  Vulgate  is  characterized  by  a  Latin 


48  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

diction  which  aims  at  being  classical.  The  co-ordina- 
tion of  clauses  peculiar  to  Hebrew  construction  is 
turned  into  stately  periods,  frequently  the  original  is 
contracted,  and  at  times  words  are  added  for  the  sake 
of  clarity.  To  bring  out  the  sense,  and  if  needs  be  by 
paraphrase,  was  Jerome's  chief  concern.  In  the 
Douai  Bible  (1609),  which  is  the  authorized  Catholic 
rendition  of  the  Vulgate  into  English,  the  character 
of  Jerome's  style  is  still  largely  preserved,  a  factor 
which  together  with  the  many  Latinisms  employed 
by  the  translators,  Catholic  exiles  from  England, 
differentiates  it,  to  its  disadvantage,  from  the  Angli- 
can version  of  161 1.  Modern  Catholic  Churchmen 
candidly  admit  the  superior  diction  of  the  latter,  and 
^,       ,  in  their  revisions  freely  borrow  from  it. 

rr,  1  2.'  Of  course,  the  Catholic  English  Bible 
Translations  .  .  ,         ^   , 

^,  remams  a  tertiary  product  such  as  the 

m  other  ^t  ,  t      •  ^  ■  ^  ^      t 

_  Old  Latm  was  denommated  by  J  erome. 
Languages, 

Nevertheless,  in  the  official  service  of 

the  Church  the  greater  part  of  the  Scriptures  is  read 
in  a  translation  directly  resting  on  the  original,  while 
the  Coptic  (in  various  dialects),  Gothic,  Armenian, 
Ethiopic,  Georgian,  as  well  as  the  English  transla- 
tions prior  to  the  Reformation,  are  tertiary  products, 
based  on  the  Greek  or  the  Latin  of  Jerome ;  the  Arabic 
versions  were  made  from  the  Greek,  Syriac,  and 
Coptic,  and  one  Persian  translation  goes  back  to  the 


ANCIENT  CHRISTIAN  TRANSLATIONS  49 

Peshitta.  However,  in  the  Coptic  and  Ethiopia  there 
are  elements  taken  directly  from  the  Hebrew  (chap- 
ter II).  The  date  of  all  these  Church  versions  varies, 
ranging  from  the  third  to  the  thirteenth  century. 
The  Gothic  version  was  contemporary  with  Jerome ; 
there  is  a  letter  extant  from  the  pen  of  the  most 
erudite  among  the  fathers  of  the  Church  to  two 
Gothic  scholars  who,  unfamiliar  with  the  languages 
of  the  original,  experienced  difficulty  in  accounting 
for  the  differences  between  Jerome's  newer  version 
and  the  Greek.  The  Church  father  welcomes  with 
delight  this  interest  in  the  Scriptures  from  the  far-off 
north,  coming  at  a  time  '  when  polished  Greece  is 
asleep.'  With  the  Psalmist  he  calls  out :  *  Their 
sound  is  gone  forth  into  all  the  earth,  and  their  words 
to  the  end  of  the  world  '  (Psalm  19.5  according  to 
the  Septuagint). 


CHAPTER  IV 

JEWISH  TRANSLATIONS  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 
The  rabbis  speak  of  two  kinds  of  Hebrew,  the  lan- 
guage of  the  Scriptures  and  the  language  of  the  wise 
in  which  the  Mishnah  and  the  cognate  literature  are 
composed.  The  latter  has  been  wrongly  likened  to 
the  scholars'  Latin  of  the  Middle  Ages ;  it  is  rather 
a  natural  outgrowth  from  the  older  language.  In- 
The  Precursors   deed  the  later  writings  of  the  Hebrew 

of  the  Science  ^'^^^  ^"^  ^^^  ^^'^'^^^  ^^^^^  "°™' 
of  ScriBtural  known  as  halakahs  are  indited  in  a 
Interpretation,  transitional  style  half-biblical  half- 
mishnic.  Many  words  which  the 
biblical  writers  had  no  occasion  to  use  have  been  pre- 
served in  the  later  literature.  The  Jewish  Book  of 
Prayer  has  noble  pieces  of  pure  Hebrew.  Thus  for 
the  most  part  a  living  tradition  of  the  Hebrew  lan- 
guage continued  long  after  it  had  vanished  from  the 
mouth  of  the  people.  The  rabbis  themselves  knew 
their  Bible  well.  There  is  not  a  page  of  the  Talmud, 
a  chapter  of  the  Midrash,  that  is  not  replete  with 
biblical  quotations.  The  genealogical  chapters  of 
Chronicles  with  their  mere  lists  of  names  were  as 


ife'»ttvn^^^>U>akVD 


».  «')'i»Trj'>r'n^i>r''"^'V 


,..x. 


•^^•fv\-^^\'r>vy  1 


CODEX    PETROPOLITANUS— 916  C.    E. 
With  superlinear  vocalization  ancPMasoretic  notes 


TRANSLATIONS  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES         51 

familiar  to  them  as  a  chapter  from  Deuteronomy  or  a 
psalm.  They  were  not  strangers  to  simpler  gram- 
matical observations,  and  the  finer  points  of  the  scrip- 
tural idiom  did  not  escape  their  attention.  Neverthe- 
less their  interest  in  the  Bible  was  mainly  practical : 

^  ,       ,     it  served  as  a  basis  for  les^al  deductions  or 

Talmud.  ,   ,  ^,  r    ,      -t-  1       j 

moral  lessons.      ihe  sea  of  the    lalmua 

threatened  to  submerge  the  fountain-head  out  of 
which  it  had  sprung.  The  talmudic  teachers  readily 
conceded  their  ignorance  in  matters  of  spelling  and 
the  like,  and  left  the  care  of  the  sacred  text  to  the 
elementary  schoolmasters.  To  these  humbler  schol- 
ars we  owe  the  invention  of  the  vowel  and  accent 
points  in  which  was  deposited  a  goodly  portion  of 
the  traditional  pronunciation  and  interpretation  of 
the  biblical  Word;  it  is  they  who  built  up  in  suc- 
cessive stashes  the  Masorah,  that  g-igantic 
Masorah.  ,^,.  .        r 

system  of  lists  now  on  the  margm  of 

copies  of  the  sacred  text  prepared  for  private  use, 
now  in  independent  works,  a  veritable  fence  ward- 
ing off  the  innovations  not  sanctioned  by  tradition. 
In  the  school  of  Tiberias  these  studies  were  particu- 
larly cultivated.  The  two  great  Masoretes,  Ben 
Asher  and  Ben  Naphtali,  emerging  towards  the  close 
of  the  gaonic  period,  are  already  semi-grammarians. 
The  Karaitic  schism  with  its  revolt  against  the  Tal- 
mud paved  the  way  for  a  return  to  the  Scriptures  in 


52  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

which  the  Rabbanites  were  not  slow  to  take  a  lead- 
ing part.     Naturally  the  first  attempts  signified  a 

„,     „  ,  g-ropingf  in  the  darkness.     Kalir,  the 

The  Return    ^     ^     f,  ^    ,        .  ,   ,  ' 

great  liturgist  of  the  eighth  century, 

.  strives   after  biblical   diction,   but  his 

perverted  notions  of  the  laws  of  gram- 
mar render  his  poetic  productions,  rich  in  thought  as 
they  are,  exceedingly  unedifying  on  the  side  of  lan- 
guage. The  schoolmasters  had  done  well  in  their 
way ;  now  it  was  the  task  of  the  scholar  to  resurrect 
petrified  tradition  by  the  application  of  the  scientific 

_,     -.     ^.^  method.    The  men  to  whom  it  fell  to 

The  Scientific  ,     -r-r  i 

„  ^,    ,     .  construct  the  Hebrew  grammar  and 

Method  of  ,     -r^  i           i-    •                 i    i     t^-i  i 

_  ^         ^  ^.  the  Hebrew  dictionary  and  the  Bible 

Interpretation.  ,  -r^.,  /     •  •  • 

commentary  and  Bible  criticism  were 

at  home  in  the  post-biblical  literature,  that  great 
store-house  of  linguistic  material ;  they  knew  the  two 
foremost  sister-languages  of  the  Hebrew,  the  Ara- 
maic from  their  study  of  Targum  and  Talmud,  and 
the  Arabic  which  they  spoke ;  they  were  versed  in  the 
great  Arabic  literature ;  they  were  familiar  with  the 
Koran  and  the  poets;  they  studied  the  native  Arab 
grammarians  and  lexicographers,  who  with  great  in- 
dustry and  finesse  of  perception  had  built  up  an  accu- 
rate science  of  their  rich  language — apt  pupils  of  the 
Syrian  grammarians  whose  efforts  rested  upon  the 
lore  of  Greece  where  grammar  as  a  science  had  its 
orijDfin. 


TRANSLATIONS  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES         53 

The  first  among  these  Bible  students  was  he  whom 
posterity  celebrated  as  the  first  spokesman  in  all  the 
branches  of  Jewish  learning,  the  Gaon  Saadya,  that 
formidable  foe  of  Karaism  (892-942).  Master  of 
the  law  (halakah),  liturgical  poet,  theological  con- 
troversiahst,  philosopher,  he,  like  many  another 
«  ,  spiritual  leader  in  Jewry  in  a  similar  crisis, 
realized  that  the  study  of  the  Scriptures 
must  be  the  corner-stone  of  Jewish  learning.  To 
aid  in  a  correct  handling  of  the  Hebrew  language  by 
the  poets  of  the  synagogue,  he  wrote  a  Hebrew 
grammar  and  a  dictionary  of  the  sacred  language. 
As  a  direct  help  to  the  understanding  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, he  collected  ninety  words  which  occur  but 
once  or  rarely  in  the  Bible,  '  having  neither  brother 
nor  friend,'  and  showed  how,  by  the  aid  of  the  later 
Hebrew  or  the  cognate  Arabic,  their  meaning  became 
clear.  To  cite  but  one  example:  Isaiah  14.  12,  at 
the  end,  he  recovers  for  the  Hebrew  verb  the  mean- 
_.  ing '  cast  lots  upon  '  in  the  place  of  '  lay  low  ' 

.     , .  still  found  in  the  current  translations  and 
Araoic 

„     .  dictionaries ;  the  corresponding:  noun,  mean- 
Version,  i  i=>  y 

ing  '  lot,'  he  located  in  the  Mishnah.  By  far 
transcending  in  importance  was  his  translation  of 
the  Scriptures  into  Arabic,  in  some  books  accom- 
panied by  a  commentary.  Though  not  a  paraphrase, 
the  version  is  by  no  means  literal.    Where  necessary 


54  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

a  word  is  added  to  bring  out  the  sense  clearly ;  sev- 
eral verses  are  frequently  joined  together  in  a  syn- 
tactical nexus,  and  thus,  though  the  original  coloring 
is  lost,  the  translation  gains  in  lucidity.  With  a  view 
to  the  same  end  a  positive  Arabic  equivalent  is  intro- 
duced where  the  meaning  of  the  Hebrew  is  doubtful, 
in  order  not  to  awaken  in  the  laity  the  thought  that 
there  are  obscure  expressions  in  the  Scriptures.  What 
is  principally  aimed  at  is  clarity  and  elegant  diction. 
Ancient  names  of  places  are  modernized.  Though 
an  upholder  of  tradition,  Saadya  emancipates  himself 
from  the  forced  interpretation  of  the  rabbis,  thus 
breaking  ground  for  a  rational  exposition  based  on 
grammar  and  an  adequate  observation  of  the  usage 
of  words  withm  the  compass  of  the  entire  Scriptures. 
He  does  not  consider  himself  bound  by  the  marginal 
corrections  (variants)  of  the  Masoretes  (chapter 
Vni),  and  frequently  embodies  in  his  translation  the 
textual  reading  (ketib)  in  the  text.  Though  natu- 
rally not  free  from  faults,  Saadya's  version  served 
as  a  mine  in  the  hands  of  successive  generations  of 
Bible  students;  but  it  was  intended  in  the  first 
instance  for  the  people,  the  Jews  in  the  vast  domain 
of  Arabic  culture;  to  this  day  it  is  read  by  the 
Yemenite  Jews,  who,  driven  from  their  home  by  per- 
secution and  employed  as  common  laborers  in  the 
Jewish  colonies  of  Palestine,  bring  with  them  the 


TRANSLATIONS  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES         55 

Scriptures  in  the  Hebrew  original,  the  Targum 
neatly  pointed,  and  Saadya's  Arabic  translation. 

The  Babylonian  center  of  Jewry  was  now  in  the 

last  stages  of  dissolution;  another  was  preparing  in 

,     _.  the  West  in  the  Iberian  peninsula,  the 

North  African  coast  serving  as  a  bridge. 

On  the  banks  of  the  Ebro,  in  Tortosa, 
Hebrew  ,       ,  r  i     x      •  i 

^.  ,.  under  the  patronaefe  of  the  Jewish  states- 

Dictionary.  ^^,.^,^, 

man    Hasdai    Ibn    Shaprut,    Menahem 

ben  Saruk  (about  960)  worked  out  in  Hebrew  the 
first  complete  dictionary  of  the  Scriptures.  Un- 
fortunately he  had  not  hit  upon  the  right  under- 
standing of  the  structure  of  Hebrew ;  he  was  attacked 

-u  ^y  Dunash,  a  pupil  of  Saadya's,  who  won 
over  the  rich  and  powerful  Maecenas.  The 
fame  of  both  soon  spread  beyond  the  confines  of  the 
Moorish  dominions.  In  Northern  France  a  new 
school  of  Jewish  learning,  branching  off  from  the 
seat  of  talmudic  erudition  established  in  the  Rhenish 
provinces  by  Gershom  'the  Light  of 

'  Exile,'  was  in  course  of  construction. 

,   ,        Solomon  son  of  Isaac,  better  known  as 
Commentator,    t,     ,  .  ,  ,.    ,  .    ,, 

Rashi  (died  1 105) ,  the  great  commen- 
tator of  the  Talmud,  found  leisure  to  write  a  commen- 
tary on  the  Bible.  His  exposition  of  the  Pentateuch 
in  particular  became  in  time  the  most  popular  and 
widely  used,  and  ever  after  it  meant  the  sum  of  lay 
education  for  a  Jew  to  have  read  his  Homesh  ( Penta- 


56  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

teuch)  with  Rashi.  What  made  for  the  popularity  of 
this  commentary  was  its  intermediate  attitude  be- 
tween the  traditional  interpretation  of  the  rabbis  and 
the  more  modern  rational  exegesis.  In  grammatical 
matters,  Menahem  and  his  critic  are  Rashi's  chief 
guides.  The  feud  which  ensued  between  the  disciples 
of  both  had  not  yet  become  known  outside  Spain ;  the 
French  commentators  worked  in  isolation,  producing 
some  good  results,  and  the  aged  Rashi  confessed  to 
his  grandson,  Samuel  son  of  Meir,  that,  were  he  at  lei- 
sure, he  should  have  to  revise  his  own  commentary  in 
accordance  with  the  newer  interpretations  coming  up 
daily.  Interspersed  in  Rashi's  commentary,  as  in  all 
the  productions  of  the  French  school,  are  renditions 
of  difficult  Hebrew  words  and  phrases  in  French ;  we 
also  possess  independent  glossaries,  thus  amounting 
to  a  partial  Jewish  version  of  the  Scriptures  in 
French  which  constitutes  one  of  the  early  records 
of  the  language.  Catholic  priests  who  sought  out 
Rashi  brought  him  a  knowledge  of  Jerome's  Latin 
version;  conversely,  Rashi's  commentary  was  ex- 
cerpted in  Latin  by  the  apostate  Nicholas  de  Lyra 
(died  1340)  whose  '  Postillae  Perpetuae,'  printed  in 
1471-2,  exercised  a  potent  influence  on  Luther's 
German  translation  of  the  Bible  (chapter  V). 

Meanwhile   a   revolution   had   been   wrought   in 
Spain.     To  a  disciple  of  Menahem,  Judah  son  of 


TRANSLATIONS  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES         57 

David  Hayyuj,  who  taught  in  Cordova  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  eleventh  century,  fell  the  momentous  and 
-y         .^  epoch-making  discovery  of  the  funda- 

^,  ,  ^.\  mental  character  of  Hebrew  root  struc- 
the     First 

^  .      ,  ture.    The  memory  of  the  *  first  s^ram- 

Grammanan.  -^   . 

marian,'   as   Hayyuj    was   called,   was 

cherished  by  posterity;  his  system  was  improved  in 

detail  by  Jonah  Ibn  Janah,  '  the  greatest  of  medieval 

_,      T      ,       Hebraists,'    in    the    first    half    of    the 

iDn  Janah: 

th    «  r      t    t  ^^^^^'^^^  century.     A  physician  by  pro- 

ij  -ii/r  J-      1    fession,  he  employed  his  leisure  in  deep- 

of  Medieval        .  f    -^  .      .^  ,       r 

,     .      ,      enmg  the  newly  won  scientific  study  of 

the  Bible  through  a  series  of  contro- 
versial treatises,  but  chiefly  through  his  double  work 
containing  a  grammar  and  dictionary  of  the  Bible  lan- 
guages. Both  Hayyuj  and  Ibn  Janah  composed  their 
works  in  Arabic;  their  influence  was  therefore  con- 
fined for  the  time  being  to  their  immediate  circle, 
though  later  on  their  efforts  were  made  accessible  to  a 
wider  public  through  translation  into  Hebrew.  How 
seriously  these  pioneers  in  Bible  interpretation  took 
their  task  may  be  gauged  by  what  Ibn  Janah  tells  of 
of  his  teacher  Isaac  son  of  Saul :  he  was  in  the  habit  of 
reciting  the  one  hundred  and  forty-third  psalm  in  his 
nightly  devotions,  but  he  ceased  to  do  so  when  he 
found  that  he  was  unable  to  interpret  a  certain  word 
in  the  ninth  verse.  Gifted  with  keen  observation  and 


58  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

a  fine  insight  into  the  spirit  of  the  Hebrew,  Ibn  Janah 
became  the  guide  of  posterity ;  his  works  were  freely 
excerpted,  but  in  the  course  of  time  were  forgotten, 
until  they  were  resuscitated  in  the  nineteenth  century. 
W.  Robertson  Smith  laments  the  fact  that  this  fine 
scholar  has  been  neglected  by  expositors  subsequent 
to  Gesenius  (chapter  VI).  The  work  so  auspiciously 
begun  by  Ibn  Janah  was  carried  on  by  men  of  genius ; 
the  Scriptures  were  now  better  understood,  and  the 
Hebrew  of  the  Bible  became  a  vehicle  of  poetic  pro- 
ductions, metrical  and  rhymed  after  the  manner  of 
the  Arabs,  under  the  hands  of  famed  singers,  such  as 
Solomon  Ibn  Gabirol  and  Judah  ha-Levi.  The  learn- 
ing of  the  farthest  West,  for  which  Saadya  in  the 
.  -  East  had  laid  the  foundations  and  to 

which  another  Eastern  Gaon,  Hai  (died 
1038),  before  the  flickering  flame  of  the  Babylonian 
schools  became  wholly  extinct,  had  made  a  notable 
contribution,  was  at  once  carried  to  fruition  and  dis- 
^         seminated  through  the  darkest  abodes 

,,     „.     '.^      of  Jewry  by  Abraham  son  of  Meir  Ibn 
the  Scientific    t-,*^,"^*^      ^   ^     ^  u  a 

Ezra  (1092- 1 1 67).  A  born  wanderer, 

this  profound  scholar,  poet,  and  phil- 
osopher traveled  far  and  wide,  away  from  his  native 
city  Toledo  in  Spain  through  North  Africa  and  the 
Orient,  to  Rome,  to  France,  to  England,  '  sojourning 
everywhere,  composing  works  and  laying  bare  the 


TRANSLATIONS  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES         59 

secrets  of  knowledge.'  In  1 140  we  find  him  at  Rome 
writing  a  Hebrew  grammar  and  commentaries  on  the 
Five  Scrolls  and  Job;  at  Lucca  in  1145  he  defends 
the  Gaon  Saadya,  comments  on  Isaiah,  and  begins 
his  exposition  of  the  Pentateuch;  at  Mantua  in  the 
same  year  he  produces  another  grammatical  work; 
at  Beziers  in  1155  he  writes  on  the  divine  name;  the 
next  years  find  him  at  Dreux,  in  France,  busy  with 
commentaries  on  Daniel,  the  Twelve,  Exodus,  and 
die  remainder  of  the  Pentateuch.  In  his  preface  to 
the  Torah  he  defines  his  exposition  as  '  bound  up  with 
grammar.'  Ibn  Ezra  was  a  thorough-going  rational- 
ist ;  his  guarded  remarks  on  the  Babylonian  author- 
ship of  the  Second  Isaiah  (an  opinion  advanced,  as  he 
tells  us,  by  a  predecessor)  and  on  the  anachronisms  in 
the  Pentateuch  pointing  to  a  post-Mosaic  compilation 
of  the  Torah  make  him  a  forerunner  of  criticism  and 
the  inspirer  of  the  theories  propounded  by  Spinoza. 
His  commentaries  are  for  the  most  part  written  in  a 
succinct  and  at  times  enigmatic  style,  but  they  are 
replete  with  references  to  older  expositors,  and  are 
stimulating  throughout,  scintillating  with  keen  wit, 
and  everywhere  testifying  to  a  fine  perception  of  the 
scriptural  language  and  subject-matter.  Next  to 
Rashi's  Bible  commentary,  that  by  Ibn  Ezra  enjoyed 
great  popularity,  though  his  influence  extended  pri- 
marily to  the  scholars.  Like  Rashi,  Ibn  Ezra  wrote 
5 


6o  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

in  Hebrew.  On  his  wanderings  he  made  many 
friends;  in  France  he  met  Rashi's  other  grandson, 
Jacob  son  of  Meir,  surnamed  Tam,  who 
still  operated  with  Menahem  and  Dunash, 
defending  the  former  against  the  latter, 
but  independently  arriving  pretty  nearly  at  the  con- 
clusions long  anticipated  by  the  '  first  grammarian.' 
Nowhere  was  Ibn  Ezra's  appearance  more  welcomed 
than  in  the  Provence,  the  bridge  between  the  southern 
peninsula  and  the  north.  A  hundred  and  fifty  years 
later  a  Provencal  scholar  of  Beziers  reports  thus 
concerning  the  profound  impression  made  by  Ibn 
Ezra's  advent  there :  '  Our  fathers  told  us  of  the 
joy  with  which  the  great  of  our  land,  its  pious  men 
and  rabbis,  received  Ibn  Ezra  when  his  wanderings 
brought  him  to  them.  He  opened  the  eyes  of  the 
inhabitants  of  these  regions,  and  wrote  for  them  com- 
mentaries and  other  works.'     In  the  Provence  Ibn 

m-L  TT*  -u-  Ezra's  seed  yielded  rich  fruit;  Joseph 
The  Kimhis.   t^.    .  .     ,  ,      ,  n         , 

Kimhi    (about    1150),    whose    native 

home  was  Spain,  and  his  two  sons,  Moses  and  David, 
who  lived  by  tutoring,  brought  to  consummation  the 
labor  of  three  centuries,  and  though  much  work  was 
done  after  them,  it  remained  for  the  most  part  of  an 
inferior  character.  David  (i  160-1235)  in  particu- 
lar, the  author  of  a  masterly  Hebrew  grammar  and 
dictionary,  became  the  famed  teacher  of  posterity  far 


TRANSLATIONS  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES         61 

beyond  the  confines  of  his  own  people.  When  at  the 

revival  of  learning  in  the  early  sixteenth  century 

Christian  Churchmen,  following  in  the  footsteps  of 

Jerome  in  the  fourth  century,  sought  instruction  in 

_  .,,,.,.  Hebrew  at  the  hands  of  Jewish  schol- 
David  Kimhi.  „   ,        ,  1,1. 

ars,  all  that  these  teachers  could  nnpart 

to  them  was  a  digest  of  the  labors  of  David  Kimhi. 

In  1 506  the  humanist  Reuchlin  wrote  the  first  Hebrew 

grammar  and  dictionary  produced  by  a  Christian 

scholar,  and  his  teachers  were  Jacob  Jehiel  Loans 

and  Obadiah  Sforno.     Sebastian  Miinster  and  Paul 

Fagius  were  the  pupils  of  Elias  Levita  (1469- 1548), 

a  versatile  man  who  became  the  link  between  Kimhi 

and  the  Christian  Hebraists. 

The  influence  of  Kimhi,  as  we  shall  have  occasion 

to  see  later  (chapter  V),  may  be  traced  in  every  line 

„     .  of  the  Anglican  translation  of  161 1.    His 

Versions 

.     _      .        fame  spread  early;  in  the  far-away  East 

in  Jrersi3-ii,  ,.,,..  ... 

he  was  studied,  his  interpretation  being 

made  the  basis  of  a  Persian  translation  done  by  a 
Jew  about  1400,  of  which  the  books  of  Isaiah,  Jere- 
miah, and  (in  part)  Ezekiel  are  extant  (in  a  Paris 
manuscript;  published  by  Lagarde  in  1884).  Of  a 
later  date  is  the  Persian  version  of  the  Pentateuch 
by  Rabbi  Jacob  Tawos,  printed  at  Constantinople 
in  1546  and  reproduced  in  the  fourth  volume  of 
Walton's  Polyglot.  Of  two  Greek  versions  by  Jewish 


62  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

authors  mention  was  made  above  (chapter  II)  ;  the 
one  was  certainly  influenced  by  Kimhi,  while  the 
other  served  the  purposes  of  Jews  in  the  Byzan- 
tine empire.  The  edition  in  which  the  latter  was 
printed  (Constantinople  1547)  contains  the  Penta- 
teuch together  with  the  Haftarot  (Prophetical  les- 
sons) and  the  Five  Scrolls  (Song  of  Songs,  Ruth, 
Lamentations,  Ecclesiastes,  Esther)  in  the  Hebrew, 
in  the  Targum  '  which  every  chiM  of  Israel  is  en- 
joined to  read/  in  Neo-Greek  and  in  Spanish  (both 
in  Hebrew  characters),  '  the  two  languages  in  vogue 
among  our  people  in  the  captivity,  the  remnant  of 
Judah  and  Israel  dwelling  in  Turkish  lands,'  accom- 

^  „  .  ,  panied  by  Rashi's  commentary.  The 
In  Spanish.     ^       •  t.  /       w  ^  • 

Spanish  translation  rests  upon  previous 

labors  executed  in  Spain  in  the  preceding  centuries. 
In  1422  Rabbi  Moses  Arragel  translated  the  Bible 
from  the  Hebrew  original  at  the  bidding  of  a  prince 
of  the  Church  and  with  the  assistance  of  Francis- 
can clerics.  The  famous  Ferrara  Bible  in  Spanish 
(printed  in  1553)  was  a  revision  of  that  version;  it 
was  edited  by  Abraham  Usque  (otherwise  Duarte 
Pinel)  and  published  at  the  expense  of  Yom  Tob 
Atias  (otherwise  Jeronimo  de  Vargas).  It  is  inter- 
esting that  in  certain  copies,  as  a  concession  to 
Christian  readers,  the  rendering  '  virgin '  is  found 
in  Isaiah  7.  14,  while  those  which  were  intended  for 


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TRANSLATIONS  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES         63 

the  Jews  adopted  the  expression  '  young  woman  '  or 

retained  the  Hebrew  word  untranslated  ('  la  alma  '). 

_     _   ,      -,  We  possess  a  manuscript  transla- 

In  Judeo-Germaii.     .      ^  ^  r  ,     t^m  /  .    -r    , 

tion  of  a  part  of  the  Bible  m  Judeo- 

German  dating  from  the  year  1421.     A  translation 

of  the  Pentateuch  in  the  same  dialect  was  printed  at 

Constance    1543-44  by   the  baptized  Jew  Michael 

Adam,  and  Elias  Levita's  rendition  of  the  Psalms 

appeared  at  Venice  in  1 545.    The  most  popular  work, 

constituting  to  this  day  in  the  east  of  Europe  the 

Bible   of   the  Jewish   woman,   was   the   '  Teutsch- 

-       ,  ,      Homesh,'     also    known    as    the 

Zeenah  u-reenah.  '  t.    //-     r    .1 

Zeenah  u-reenah   (Go  forth,  ye 

women,  and  see),'  by  Jacob  son  of  Isaac  of  Janow% 

which  was  printed  in  Amsterdam  in  1649.    The  first 

complete  Bible  in  Judeo-German  was  that  of  Jekuthiel 

Blitz  (Amsterdam  1676-8),  and  another  version  by 

Joseph  Witzenhausen  (Amsterdam  1679)   was  ap- 

__     .        ,       proved   by   the   Council   of   the   Four 

„         .,  Lands.    The  Samaritans  had  an  Arabic 

Samaritans.     ^        ,    .         r    ,      -r^  ,    ,       * , 

translation  of  the  Pentateuch  by  Abu 

Said  (eleventh  century)  who  adapted  Saadya's  ver- 
sion to  the  needs  of  his  own  people;  the  Karaites 

_-     .        ,       likewise  had  an  Arabic  translation  of 
Versions  by    ,,    .  1    ,         , 

__      .  their  own,  made  by  a  learned  contem- 

porary of  the  Gaon ;  they  also  read  the 
Scriptures  in  a  Tataric  version,  dating  from  about 
1640  (printed  in  Goslov  184 1-2). 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  AGE  OF  THE  REFORMATION.     LUTHER  AND 
THE  KING  JAMES  VERSION 

The  official  Bible  in  Christian  Europe  throughout 

the  Middle  Ages  was  Jerome's  Latin  in  the  West  and 

the  Greek  in  the  Byzantine  Empire.     Vernacular 

translations,  at  first  mere  paraphrases  in  rhyme  or 

prose  and  partial,  confined  to  the  Psalter,  in  course  of 

time  verbal  and  complete,  arose  everywhere.    Where 

_,     _  the  spoken  languao^e  was  akin  to  Latin, 

The  Eve  .^  .^     ^      .        , 

.    ,  as  m  Romanic  countries,  the  attempts 

_  »        ^.  naturally  date  from  the  time  when  the 

Reformation.         ,^  , 

gulf  between  the  mother-tongue  and 

the  daughter  dialects  widened  and  the  older  lan- 
guage was  no  longer  understood  by  the  people ;  else- 
where the  need  manifested  itself  so  soon  as  Christi- 
anity had  taken  root  and  here  and  there  at  the  very 
moment  of  its  introduction.  Thus  Cyrillus  and 
Methodius,  the  apostles  to  the  Slavs,  are  said  to  have 
invented  for  them  an  alphabet  based  on  the  Greek, 
and  are  credited  with  having  laid  the  foundation  for 
the  version  in  rhe  Old-Bulgarian  dialect  which  from 


THE  AGE  OF  THE  REFORMATION  65 

the  very  beginning  was  used  in  the  services  of  the 
Orthodox  Church.  In  the  Catholic  West  vernacular 
renditions  were  private  undertakings  as  an  aid  to  the 
understanding  of  the  Latin  upon  which  they  were 
based  and  often  accompanying  it  in  the  form  of  inter- 
linears.  The  Catholic  Church,  as  guardian  of  the 
Scriptures,  was  rather  jealous  of  the  vernacular 
Bible;  frequently  indeed,  from  the  early  thirteenth 
century  downward  to  the  rise  of  the  Reformation, 
Bible  translating  went  hand  in  hand  with  movements 
aimed  at  breaking  down  the  Church's  authority  by 
the  very  appeal  to  the  direct  Word  of  God,  and  was 
undertaken  in  spite  of  '  the  opinion  of  many  clergy 
that  the  mysteries  of  the  Bible  should  be  kept  from 
the  ordinary  man.'  Venerable  monuments  of  the 
early  history  of  Europe's  national  languages,  these 
translations  are  far  more  important  as  so  many  stages 
in  a  religious  upheaval,  long  in  preparation,  culminat- 
ing in  that  revolt  of  the  North  which  rent  the  Church 
in  twain.  The  first  complete  French  translation  dates 
from  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century ;  a  partial 
version  in  Provengal  had  preceded  it  among  the  fol- 
lowers of  Peter  Waldus,  influencing  in  turn  the 
earliest  efforts  in  Italian  in  the  fourteenth  century; 
the  first  complete  English  Bible  is  associated  with  the 
name  of  Wycliffe  who  in  the  same  century  led  the 
attack  against  the  Papacy ;  versions  in  German  multi- 


66  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

plied  as  the  Papal  authority  declined;  in  the  early 
fifteenth  century  John  Huss,  the  Bohemian  reformer, 
who  perfected  a  vernacular  translation  for  his 
countrymen,  was  burned  at  the  stake.  In  all  these 
centuries,  though  the  Word  of  God  proved  its  inher- 
ent potency  with  which  it  found  its  way  to  the  minds 
The  Invention  ^"^  ^^^^^'^^  °^  ^^^^  people,  Bible  copies, 
of  Printing.  multiplied  by  hand,  were  costly.  It 
required  the  invention  of  printing  to 
spread  the  vernacular  Scriptures  among  the  masses. 
The  first  printed  book  was  the  Bible  in  Latin 
(1452-6),  and  more  than  a  dozen  editions  of  the 
German  Bible  were  issued  from  various  presses  before 
the  first  edition  of  the  Greek  (the  Complutensian, 
printed  in  15 17,  published  in  1520;  the  Aldine  at 
Venice,  15 18-9)  made  its  appearance.  When  on  the 
loth  of  December,  1520,  Martin  Luther  signified  his 
break  with  Rome  by  committing  to  the  flames  the 
Til    V  '  f  n        whole  body  of  the  canon  law,  twenty- 

TT  1-         T»-i.i       one  partial  or  complete  editions  of 
Hebrew  Bible.      ,      :.t  ,  r.    .  .     ,    1 

the    Hebrew    Scriptures    had    been 

struck  ofT  from  presses  owned  by  Jews  or  Christians, 

pious  wealthy  Jews  sometimes  defraying  the  costs 

(chapter  VII),  under  the  editorial  care,  or  at  least 

with  the  assistance,  of  learned  Jews.     The  most 

notable  of  these  editions,  opening  up  the  stores  of 

Jewish  exegetical  labors,  was  the  first  Rabbinic  Bible 


THE  AGE  OF  THE  REFORMATION  67 

issued  in  Venice  (i 516-7)  by  Felix  Pratensis,  a  con- 
vert to  Christianity,  and  dedicated  to  Pope  Leo  X; 
an  improved  and  much  enlarged  edition  followed  in 
1524-5  including  the  Masorah  revised  and  compiled 
by  Jacob  son  of  Haim  Ibn  Adonijah,  who  subse- 
quently likewise  embraced  Christianity.  Thus  the 
way  was  paved  for  the  newer  Bible  learning  in  which 
Christian  scholars,  at  first  timidly  and  largely  in 
dependence  upon  Jewish  predecessors,  then  with 
greater  originality  and  with  increased  facilities,  were 
to  exercise  themselves,  and  Bible  translating  was 
placed  on  a  surer  foundation  by  a  return  to  the  origi- 
nal fountain-head. 

In  the  early  sixteenth  century  a  Catholic  editor 
of  the  Vulgate  complains  that  the  Jews  make"  light  of 
_       ,  , .  the  Church  translation  and  urge  upon 

,       ,  the  head  of  the  Church  of  Rome  the 

uased  on 

,,  /x  .  .  ,  need  of  a  new  rendition.  Somewhat 
the  Original.  ,.  ,   ,  ,    ^  ,     -. 

earlier,  toward  the  end  of  the  fifteenth 

century,  a  German  translator  of  the  Vulgate  declares 

it  as  his  purpose  that  every  intelligent  layman  may 

know  how  to  answer  the  '  evil-minded  Jews.'    Of  the 

-  _  ^.  new  Latin  translations  based  on  the  oriei- 
In  latm.       ,  .     ,  ,         ,      o 

nal  we  may  smgle  out  those  by  Sanctes 

Pagninus  (1541),  Sebastian  Miinster  (1534-5),  Leo 

Juda  (Zwingli's  collaborator;  he  was  assisted  by  a 

baptized  Jew)  and  his  associates  (1543),  Chateillon 


68  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

(who  also  translated  the  Bible  into  French,  1551), 
Immanuel  Tremellius,  a  baptized  Jew,  with  whom 
was  associated  his  son-in-law  du  Jon  (1579).  All 
of  these,  more  or  less  felicitously  executed,  were 
learned  productions,  and  they  proved  of  great  assist- 
ance to  those  whose  familiarity  with  the  original 
tongues,  notably  the  Hebrew,  was  rather  modest. 
Miinster's  rendition  indirectly  influenced  the  King 
James  Version.  The  use  of  Latin  explains  itself 
only  from  its  being  the  language  of  the  learned, 
continued  beyond  the  century  of  the  Reformation. 
But  the  very  essence  of  the  revolt  against  Rome  con- 
sisted in  the  breaking  up  of  the  international  Church- 
empire  and  in  the  rise  of  the  independent  state-nation- 
alities ;  and  wherever  the  reformatory  movement  took 
root,  the  placing  of  the  Bible  within  the  comprehen- 
sion of  the  laity  by  means  of  vernacular  renditions 
followed  of  necessity.  The  Vulgate  and  the  trans- 
lations derived  from  it  were  to  be  banished;  new 
translations  based  upon  the  original  took  their  place. 
Foremost  among  the  Protestant  translations, 
monuments  at  once  of  the  new  piety  and  the  national 
_    ,     ,  cultures  with  which  they  became  in- 

_,       ,  ,.         terwoven,  are  Luther's  German  Bible 
Translation.  ,  .  ^  ^  ,     , 

on  the  contment  of   Europe  and  the 

various   attempts   in   England   culminating   in   the 
Authorized  Version  of  1 6 1 1 .    Luther  based  his  trans- 


THE  AGE  OF  THE  REFORMATION  69 

lation  upon  the  original,  using  the  Brescia  edition  of 
1494;  his  knowledge  of  Hebrew  and  Aramaic,  how- 
ever, was  but  moderate.  Naturally  he  made  use  of 
commentaries,  chiefly  those  of  Nicholas  Lyranus, 
which,  as  was  pointed  out  above  (chapter  IV),  went 
back  to  Rashi,  and  also  of  earlier  translations.  The 
work  proceeded  slowly,  the  Book  of  Job  in  particular 
baffling  his  ingenuity,  and  days  were  sometimes  spent 
over  a  few  verses.  For  the  Book  of  Leviticus  he  had 
several  sheep  killed,  and  a  butcher  of  the  town  named 
to  him  in  German  the  various  parts  of  the  animal. 
The  work  was  completed  in  1530,  and  the  first  com- 
plete edition  of  Luther's  version  appeared  in  1534. 
The  avowed  aim  of  the  translator  was  to  serve  the 
needs  of  the  common  people;  he  therefore  strove  to 
make  his  rendition  clear  and  intelligible,  without, 
however,  destroying  the  coloring  of  the  original. 
Ten  editions  issued  during  Luther's  lifetime  testify 
to  the  popularity  of  the  work  which,  while  not  free 
from  faults  and  here  and  there  marred  by  straining 
a  doctrinal  point  in  a  spirit  of  polemics,  secured  a 
permanent  hold  on  the  German  nation,  and  largely 
promoted  the  development  of  the  German  language 
and  literature.  With  the  spread  of  Lutheranism  be- 
yond the  confines  of  Germany,  Luther's  version 
became  the  basis  of  the  translations  used  in  Denmark, 
Sweden,  Norway,  and  Holland. 


70  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

Luther's  influence  is  also  clearly  perceptible  in  the 
first  printed  English  Bible,  the  work  of  William  Tyn- 
dale.  The  pupil  of  Erasmus  at  Cambridge,  upon 
discovering  that '  there  was  no  place  in  all  England  ' 
_  ,  .  to  execute  a  translation  of  the  Scriptures 
into  English,  chose  to  exile  himself  to  Ger- 
many, where  he  made  ample  use  of  the  version  by  the 
German  reformer.  His  translation  of  the  Pentateuch 
was  printed  in  1530;  a  strongly  controversial  tone 
marked  the  annotations,  which,  in  part  at  least, 
were  derived  from  Luther.  In  1531  followed  the 
Book  of  Jonah.  Tyndale  continued  to  be  busy  with 
revisions  of  his  previous  efforts  and  with  preparing 
for  print  other  parts  of  the  Scriptures.  Imprisoned  in 
Belgium  at  the  instigation  of  his  enemies,  he  touch- 
ingly  asked  for  warmer  clothing,  but  also  for  a 
Hebrew  Bible,  grammar,  and  dictionary ;  on  the  sixth 
of  October,  1536,  he  died  a  martyr  to  the  cause  of 
the  English  Bible,  and  his  last  words  at  the  stake 
were  a  prayer  that  God  might  open  the  king  of 
England's  eyes.  The  first  complete  translation  of 
^  ,  .  the  Bible  into  Enghsh,  printed  in  1535-6, 
was  dedicated  to  the  king  (Henry  VIII)  ; 
it  was  the  work  of  Miles  Coverdale,  and  was  under- 
taken at  the  bidding  of  Thomas  Cromwell.  Coverdale 
lacked  originality,  his  sources  being  Luther,  Tyndale, 
and  the  Swiss-German  version  by  Zwingli  and  Leo 


THE  AGE  OF  THE  REFORMATION  71 

Juda;  but  his  work  won  the  approbation  of  the 
throne,  and  the  Bible  in  EngHsh  circulated  freely 
among  the  people  despite  the  hostility  of  the  bishops. 
Fresh  translations,  which  were  really  revisions,  fol- 
Matthew's  ^°^^^^  quickly.  In  1537  appeared  what  is 
.^., ,  known  as  Matthew's  Bible,  based  chiefly 

Bible.  rr.         ,    1    ,  ,  1  .    ,        ,  ,  . 

upon  Tyndale  s  published  and  manuscript 
efforts ;  it  was  sold  in  England  by  leave  of  the  king 
and  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury.  A  new  revision 
by  Coverdale,  with  the  aid  of  Munster's  Latin  ver- 
sion, followed  in  1539-41    (the  Great  Bible),  and 

copies  of  it  were  set  up  in  every  church. 

.^., ,  The  people  flocked  to  the  churches,  dis- 

Bible.  ,  .   .       ,  .  ,  ,     ' 

daming  the  sermons  of  the  preachers,  but 

listening  to  the  Word  of  God  itself  read  by  some 
one,  in  disregard  of  the  order  of  divine  service,  to 
a  crowd  of  worshippers,  and  we  hear  of  an  ecclesi- 
astic making  complaint  that  '  diverse  wilful  and  un- 
learned persons  inconsiderately  and  indiscreetly  read 
the  English  Scriptures,  especially  and  chiefly  at  the 
time  of  divine  service,  yea  in  the  time  and  declaration 
of  the  word  of  God.'  The  spirit  of  the  complaint  is 
that  which  held  the  common  people  in  tutelage;  in 
the  eagerness  of  the  people  who  would  convert  the 
churches  into  reading  conventicles  and  meeting- 
houses there  was  brought  to  new  life  the  spirit  of 
Judea  and  its  synagogues. 


-^2  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

The  reaction  which  set  in  under  Mary,  with 
Cranmer  and  Rogers  burnt  at  the  stake,  drove  the 
reformers  to  the  continent.  There  the  Puritan  fol- 
lowers of  John  Knox  separated  from  the  moderate 
section  and  withdrew  to  Geneva,  the  home  of  Calvin, 
the  Swiss  reformer,  and  of  Beza,  the  most  prominent 

_,     ^  biblical   scholar  of  the  day.     A   new 

The  Geneva    ^^     ,.  ,  ,    .  ,  ,      , 

.  Jinglish  translation  was  the  result,  the 

work  of  Whittingham  and  a  group  of 
kindred  spirits,  who  based  themselves  on  the  Great 
Bible,  introducing  at  the  same  time  many  alterations 
which  were  marked  by  a  closer  approximation  to  the 
Hebrew.  The  edition,  known  as  the  Geneva  or 
Breeches  Bible  (Genesis  2.  7  read:  They  sewed  fig- 
leaves  together  and  made  themselves  breeches;  so 
already  Wycliffe),  appeared  in  1557-60.  It  at  once 
became  popular  (between  1560  and  the  outbreak  of 
Civil  War  in  England  no  less  than  160  editions  were 
struck  off),  supplanting  in  the  private  homes  of  the 
people  the  Great  Bible,  an  unwieldy  folio  volume  used 
in  the  churches.  It  is  the  first  English  Bible  with 
verse  numeration.  It  had  marginal  notes,  Calvinist 
in  tone,  but  generally  free  from  offensive  asperity. 
Its  influence  on  the  King  James  Version  was  marked. 
With  the  restoration  of  Protestantism  under  Eliza- 
beth steps  were  taken  for  a  new  revision  which  might 
be  acceptable  for  public  service.    The  Great  Bible  had 


THE  AGE  OF  THE  REFORMATION  73 

been  discredited  by  the  Genevan  effort ;  yet  the  latter 
was  too  much  identified  with  a  particular  party  in 
the  Church  to  serve  the  purpose.  In  the  year  1562 
Archbishop  Parker,  a  man  of  great  learning,  invited 
a  company  of  divines,  who  for  the  most  part  were 
bishops  (hence  the  name  Bishops'  Bible),  to  under- 
take the  task.  Each  of  the  collaborators  was  assigned 
a  portion  of  the  Scriptures,  the  Archbishop 

.„.  ,       ,    reserving:  for  himself  the  work  of  editing 
Bishops'     ,,?,..,  ,     . 

the  whole  and  seemg  it  through  the  press. 

The  Bishops'  Bible  was  printed  in  1568 
and  at  once  introduced  in  the  churches.  It  failed, 
however,  to  supersede  the  Geneva  version.  There 
was  too  much  unevenness  in  the  new  revision,  the  sev- 
eral revisers  working  separately  and  without  consul- 
tation with  their  fellow-workers.     Thus  upon  the 

„  accession  of   Tames  I  a   fresh  under- 

The  ,  .  -^  ,  ,  .        . 

_.       _  takniof   was   set   on    foot   resultmof   in 

King  James     ,      J^.       ^  ^r      -         r     ^  a 

the  King  Tames  Version  of  161 1.     A 
Version.  ,  .  .       ^       ,       , 

scheme  was  drawn  up  m  1604  by  the 

king  himself  who  selected  in  person  the  revisers  from 

both  the  ritualist  and  puritan  parties  of  the  Church. 

„.     __.     ,       The  most  important  instructions  were 
The  King's       ,      ^  „  ^ 

^    j_      ^.         the  followmof: 

Instructions.        ,  ^,  ^.  _.,  ,  ,    .       , 

The    ordmary    Bible    read    in   the 

church,  commonly  called  ''  the  Bishops'  Bible,"  to  be 

followed,  and  as  little  altered  as  the  truth  of  the 

original  will  permit. 


74  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

The  old  ecclesiastical  words  to  be  kept. 

No  marginal  notes  at  all  to  be  affixed,  but  only 
for  the  explanation  of  Hebrew  .  .   .  words. 

Every  particular  man  of  each  company  to  take 
the  same  chapter  or  chapters,  and  having  translated 
or  amended  them  severally  by  himself,  where  he 
thinketh  good,  all  to  meet  together,  confer  what  they 
have  done,  and  agree  for  their  parts  what  shall 
stand.' 

As  each  company  finished  one  book,  they  were  to 
send  it  to  the  other  companies  for  their  careful  con- 
sideration. Where  doubts  prevailed  as  to  any  pas- 
sage of  special  obscurity,  letters  were  to  be  sent  to 
'  any  learned  man  in  the  land  '  for  his  judgment. 
Finally,  *  three  or  four  of  the  most  ancient  and  grave 
divines  in  either  of  the  universities,  not  employed  in 
translating,'  were  to  be  *  overseers  of  the  translations.' 
In  1607  the  task  was  taken  in  hand.  One  group 
worked  in  Westminster  at  Genesis — II  Kings; 
another,  at  Oxford,  revised  Isaiah — A^Ealachi;  two, 
at  Cambridge,  were  busy  with  I  Chronicles — Eccle- 
siastes  and  the  Apocrypha.  The  work  on  the  entire 
body  of  the  Church  Scriptures  was  accomplished  in 
the  short  time  of  two  years  and  nine  months,  the  last 
nine  months  being  taken  up  by  a  final  revision  en- 
trusted to  a  committee  consisting  of  two  members 
from  each  center,  the  total  number  of  revisers  being 


THE  AGE  OF  THE  REFORMATION  75 

from  forty-eight  to  fifty.     The  quaint  preface  to  the 

161 1  edition  contains  interesting  information  on  the 

manner  in  which  the  revisers  executed  their  task. 

'  Matters  of   such   weight  and   consequence,'   they 

write,  *  are  to  be  speeded  with  maturity ;  for  in  a 

business  of  moment  a  man  feareth  not  the  blame  of 

_        ^,  convenient  slackness.     Neither  did  we 

From  the  ^,  .  ,  , 

_    .        ^  thmk    much    to    consult    translators    or 
Preface  to 

^.     __.  commentators,  Chaldee,  Hebrew,  Syrian, 

the  King  _,      ,  ^   '.  '  ,      o       •  , 

Greek,   or  Latm;  no,  nor  the   Spanish 

V^Kion.         ^^^^"^    ^^^    ^^°^^'    -^^^^^^    [1587-8], 
Italian  [1607],  or  Dutch  [the  German  of 

Luther]  ;  neither  did  we  disdain  to  revise  that  which 
we  had  done,  and  to  bring  back  to  the  anvil  that  which 
we  had  hammered;  but  having  and  using  as  great 
helps  as  were  needful,  and  fearing  no  reproach  for 
slowness,  nor  coveting  praise  for  expedition,  we  have 
at  length,  through  the  good  hand  of  the  Lord  upon 
us,  brought  the  work  to  that  pass  that  you  see.' 
Among  the  '  great  helps  '  was  the  Geneva  Bible. 
The  revisers  in  particular  defend  two  important 
points.  The  first  touches  the  margin  from  which 
indeed  all  comments,  not  needed  for  the  understand- 
ing of  the  text  and  in  the  previous  efforts  marred  by 
a  controversial  spirit,  were  sedulously  ruled  out. 
'  Some  peradventure,'  they  say,  '  would  have  no 
variety  of  senses  to  be  set  in  the  margin,  lest  the 
6 


76  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

authority  of  the  Scriptures  for  deciding  of  contro- 
versies by  that  show  of  uncertainty  should  somewhat 
be  shaken.  But  we  hold  their  judgment  not  to  be  so 
sound  in  this  point.  ...  It  hath  pleased  God  in  his 
Divine  Providence,  here  and  there  to  scatter  words 
and  sentences  of  that  difficulty  and  doubtfulness,  not 
in  doctrinal  points  that  concern  salvation  (for  in  such 
it  hath  been  vouched  that  the  Scriptures  are  plain), 
but  in  matters  of  less  moment,  that  fearfulness  would 
better  beseem  us  than  confidence.  .  .  .  There  be 
many  words  in  the  Scriptures,  which  be  never  found 
there  but  once  (having  neither  brother  nor  neighbor, 
as  the  Hebrews  speak),  so  that  we  cannot  be  holpen 
by  conference  of  places.  Again,  there  be  many  rare 
names  of  certain  birds,  beasts,  and  precious  stones, 
etc.,  concerning  which  the  Hebrews  themselves  are 
so  divided  among  themselves  for  judgment,  that  they 
may  seem  to  have  defined  this  or  that,  rather  because 
they  would  say  something,  than  because  they  were 
sure  of  that  which  they  said,  as  St.  Jerome  somewhere 
saith  of  the  Septuagint.  Now  in  such  a  case  doth  not 
a  margin  do  well  to  admonish  the  reader  to  seek  fur- 
ther, and  not  to  conclude  or  dogmatize  upon  this  or 
that  peremptorily  ?  For  as  it  is  a  fault  of  incredulity, 
to  doubt  of  those  things  that  are  evident ;  so  to  deter- 
mine of  those  things  as  the  Spirit  of  God  hath  left 
(even  in  the  judgment  of  the  judicious)  questionable. 


THE  AGE  OF  THE  REFORMATION  77 

can  be  no  less  than  presumption.'  The  other  point 
concerns  the  avowed  lack  of  uniformity  in  rendering 
words  of  the  original  text.  *  That  we  should  express 
the  same  notion  in  the  same  particular  word ;  as  for 
example,  if  we  translate  the  Hebrew  .  .  .  word  once 
by  purpose,  never  to  call  it  intent;  if  one  where  jour- 
neying, never  travelling;  if  one  where  think,  never 
suppose;  if  one  where  paifi,  never  ache;  if  one  where 
joy,  never  gladness,  etc.,  thus  to  mince  the  matter, 
we  thought  to  savor  more  of  curiosity  than  wisdom, 
and  that  rather  it  w^ould  breed  scorn  in  the  atheist, 
than  bring  profit  to  the  godly  reader/ 

When  the  revision  left  the  press,  it  was  attacked 

by  Doctor  Hugh  Broughton,  a  biblical  scholar  of 

,  ,     great  eminence  and  erudition,  who  had 

^  .,.  .  ,  been  omitted  from  the  list  of  revisers  on 
Criticised. 

account  of  his  violent  and  impracticable 

disposition,  and  whose  disappointment  vented  itself 
in  a  very  hostile  criticism  of  the  new  version.  Des- 
pite all  cavilling,  it  became  the  official  version  of  the 
Anglican  Church;  though  there  is  no  record  of  an 
official  decree  ordaining  its  use  in  the  service,  it  was 
and  is  still  spoken  of  as  the  Authorized  Version ;  after 
half  a  century  it  outdistanced  the  Geneva  Bible  in 
popularity,  taking  its  place  as  the  undisputed  Bible 
of  the  English  nation.  Its  production  fell  upon  a 
period  when,  as  at  no  other  time,  the  standard  of 


78  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

literary  taste,  under  the  influence  of  such  masters  as 
Spenser,  Sidney,  Hooker,  Marlowe,  and  Shakespeare, 
was  at  its  highest.  It  has  an  inimitable  charm  and 
rhythm ;  the  coloring  of  the  original  is  not  obliterated, 
and  yet  examples  abound  of  idiomatic 
, .  renditions  reproducing  the  thought  in  an 
-^.  ,.  admirable  manner.     It  ranks  as  a  classic 

iJlCtlOIL. 

in  English  literature,  and  has  exercised  a 
potent  influence  upon  writers  of  English  to  this  day. 
A  venerable  document  of  a  great  literary  and  relig- 
ious period,  after  three  centuries  of  unquestioned 
sway,  it  was  found  capable  of  improvement  on  the 
side  of  interpretation  and  in  some  of  its  vocabulary 
and  phraseology  which  are  not  quite  intelligible  to 
readers  acquainted  with  modern  English  only ;  but  all 

^  ^    .    J,        attempts  at  a  fresh  revision  have  based 
A  Basis  for      ,        ^, 

..  _  themselves  upon  it  as  a  starting-point. 

_     .  .  When  modern  revisers  have  changed  its 

Revisions.  ,  ,        ,.    .         ,  ,.rr 

matchless  diction  where  no  dmerence  of 

meaning  was  involved,  they  have  erred  in  their  zeal. 

Practical  as  the  object  of  all  Bible  translations  must 

be,  the  King  James  Version,  in  which  so  many  earlier 

efforts  have  deposited  their  happiest  and  best,  has 

pointed  out  the  way  how  with  accuracy  of  rendition 

there  must  go  elegance  of  style,  and  how  a  translation 

of  the  Scriptures  must  aim  at  rivalling  the  stately 

diction  of  the  original. 


CHAPTER  VI 

MODERN  TRANSLATIONS  BY  JEWS  AND 
CHRISTIANS 

The  *  great  helps  '  which  were  available  when  the 

King  James   Version   was  produced   were  largely 

increased  as  the  centuries  rolled  on.     The  study  of 

Arabic  was  begun  in  Europe  almost  simultaneously 

with  that  of  Hebrew,   and  notable  progress   was 

achieved  early.    At  Oxford  the  chair  of  Arabic  was 

.„  worthily  occupied  by  Edward  Pococke 

f  ro&TTCss  J  i.  J 

1.  -r,.i-T    1     from  1636  to  1691.    Syriac  studies  were 
of  Biblical  1-1 

propagated  m  the  seventeenth  century 

1  fill .   ^y  Assemani  and  others,  while  Ludolf  in 
*    1 66 1  opened  up  a  knowledge  of  Ethiopic. 

«,    .  ^.  The  gfreatest  undertaking-  of  the  seven- 

Chnstians.  f  1      x      j       t^  1 

teenth  century  was  the  London  Poly- 
glot edited  by  Brian  Walton  with  the  assistance  of 
many  scholars  (1655-57),  which  superseded  earher 
efforts  by  its  wealth  of  contents ;  the  Oriental  versions 
invited  a  comparative  study  of  the  languages  in  which 
they  were  composed;  a  still  greater  help  proved  the 
appended  dictionary  of  seven  Oriental  tongues,  the 


8o  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

Stupendous  work  of  Edmund  Castle  which  cost  him 
his  eye-sight  and  the  bulk  of  his  private  fortune. 
European  scholars,  led  by  de  Dieu  and  others,  re- 
discovered the  affinity  of  the  Semitic  dialects  which 
had  long  before  been  set  forth  by  the  Jewish  gram- 
marians of  the  first  three  centuries  of  the  second 
millennium.  English  scholars  of  the  seventeenth 
century  compiled  two  collections  of  biblical  commen- 
taries by  Christian  scholars  who  combined  with  the 
newer  learning  a  mastery  of  rabbinic  lore.  The 
received  Hebrew  text  was  criticised  as  faulty  by 
Cappellus  (1624)  and  Morinus  (1669)  and  just  as 
stubbornly  defended  by  Buxtorf  the  younger  (1648, 
1662).  Buxtorf 's  work  was  carried  on  somewhat 
pedantically  by  Alting  in  Holland  (1654)  and  Danz 
in  Germany  (1696)  who  made  light  of  comparative 
grammar;  but  the  eighteenth  century  witnessed  a 
revival  of  the  method  by  which  the  other  Semitic 
dialects,  chiefly  the  Arabic,  were  drawn  upon  for  an 
elucidation  of  the  Hebrew  language,  both  in  struc- 
ture and  vocabulary.  Its  most  illustrious  exponent 
was  Albert  Schultens  in  Holland  (1686-1750)  who, 
however,  in  his  zeal  overshot  the  mark.  In  Germany, 
the  three  Michaelis  did  creditable  work  through 
textual  editions  and  commentaries,  marking  the 
transition  from  pietistic  orthodoxy  to  rationalism. 
Towards  the  end  of  the  century  Carsten  Niebuhr 


MODERN  TRANSLATIONS  -8i 

brought  home  with  him  from  a  journey  to  the  Orient 
more  accurate  and  complete  copies  of  the  Achaemen- 
ian  inscriptions  at  Persepohs,  and  thus  laid  the  foun- 
dation for  a  decipherment  of  the  Assyrian  wedge- 
shaped  script;  excavations  of  the  ancient  mounds  in 
the  Tigris-Euphrates  valley,  carried  on  successively 
in  the  nineteenth  century,  brought  to  light  the  Assyro- 
Babylonian  as  a  new,  hitherto  unknown,  Semitic 
tongue,  and  laid  bare  a  vast  literature  which  proved 
of  great  value  for  a  knowledge  of  ancient  Oriental 
civilization  and  history  in  biblical  times.  While 
Kennicott  in  England  (1776-80)  and  de  Rossi  in 
Italy  (1784-88)  published  their  scholarly  results  of 
the  collation  of  hundreds  of  manuscripts  of  the 
Hebrew  Scriptures,  Lowth  translated  and  expounded 
Isaiah,  freely  admitting  that  the  prophets  spoke  pri- 
marily to  the  men  of  their  own  time.  Equally  famous 
is  his  treatise  on  the  sacred  poetry  of  the  Hebrews 
(1753),  which,  together  with  Herder's  essay  on  the 
same  subject  (1782),  paved  the  way  for  the  study  of 
the  Bible  as  literature.  Herder's  intuitive  conception 
of  a  people's  literature  as  rooted  in  the  folk  soul  and 
in  a  distinct  civilization  was  systematized  in  profes- 
sorial language  by  Eichhorn  who  emphasized  that 
the  Hebrew  Scriptures  were  to  be  understood  in 
their  Oriental  setting ;  he  also  independently  hit  upon 
the  conjecture,  advanced  some  time  previously  by 


^2  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

Jean  Astruc,  that  the  Pentateuch  was  composed  of  a 
number  of  parallel  '  documents.*  At  the  turn  of  the 
century  we  find  Rosenmuller  at  Leipzig  compiling  a 
voluminous  commentary  on  the  Bible,  and  Gesenius 
at  Halle  in  a  sober  and  painstaking  manner  building 
up  the  science  of  Hebrew  grammar  and  lexicography. 
Far  more  original  was  Gesenius'  pugnacious  rival 
Ewald,  who  as  grammarian,  translator,  and  historian 
became  the  guide  of  the  modern  school  of  Bible 
students.  Dillmann,  who,  like  a  second  Ludolf,  was 
master  of  Ethiopic  lore,  and  who  will  be  remembered 
as  one  of  the  greatest  commentators  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  Wellhausen,  who  revolutionized  the  study 
of  biblical  history,  and  Noldeke,  the  greatest  Oriental- 
ist of  our  age,  all  acknowledge  their  indebtedness  to 
Ewald.  Of  a  more  conservative  bent  of  mind  was 
Franz  Delitzsch,  the  erudite  student  of  rabbinic  liter- 
ature, excelling  alike  in  mastery  of  detail  and  in  ripe 
independent  judgment.  Biblical  learning  has  since 
made  stupendous  progress.  The  Bible  lands  have 
been  explored,  described,  and  surveyed ;  excavations 
everywhere  bring  to  light  undreamt-of  finds  shedding 
light  on  the  remote  past  in  which  the  sacred  writers 
lived ;  the  languages  and  fortunes  of  many  races  men- 
tioned in  the  Bible  have  been  thoroughly  studied ;  a 
critical  method  has  been  applied  to  the  ancient  rec- 


MODERN  TRANSLATIONS  83 

ords,  biblical  and  non-biblical.  Two  new  sciences, 
that  of  comparative  religion  and  that  of  comparative 
literature,  are  assisting  in  the  clarification  of  many 
points  scarcely  touched  upon  in  older  commentaries. 
In  the  modern  commentary  the  net  result  of  all  these 
multifarious  branches  of  bibhcal  study  is  deposited ; 
it  is  to  be  regretted,  however,  that  the  commentary 
of  the  very  latest  sort  is  more  concerned  with  all  the 
by-work  of  criticism  than  with  verbal  interpretation. 
Compared  with  the  master-builders  of  half  a  century 
ago,  the  average  Bible  commentator  of  to-day  has  a 
very  inadequate  knowledge  of  Hebrew,  knows  still 
less  of  later  Hebrew,  and  obtains  his  information  con- 
cerning the  versions  from  second-hand  sources.  The 
text  of  the  original  is  being  freely  tampered  with  in  a 
manner  which  would  be  laughed  at  in  the  field  of 
classical  studies.  Moreover,  it  cannot  be  denied  that 
there  is  an  undercurrent  of  hostility  to  things  Hebrew 
and  a  lack  of  sympathy  with  the  Hebrew  Scriptures. 
All  biblical  scholars  are  naturally  interested  in  the 
literature  of  the  Apocrypha  and  Pseudepigrapha,  and 
here  again  great  achievements  have  been  made  and 
new  texts  brought  to  light.  Serious  Christian  schol- 
ars are  fully  cognizant  of  the  fact  that  the  Pentateuch 
requires  for  its  elucidation  a  knowledge  of  the  rab- 
binical halakah. 


84  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

Among  the  Jews,  biblical  learning  in  the  centuries 
that  followed  the  expulsion  from  Spain  remained  at  a 
standstill.  With  the  destruction  of  the  Jewish  center 
in  the  land  where  great  achievements  had  been  ac- 
complished, the  Jewish  scholars  lost  contact  with  the 
Arabic,  a  knowledge  of  which  proved  so  fruitful  in 

the  hands  of  Christian  Hebraists.    Moreover, 
Among 
_  the  catastrophe  itself  produced  a  depression  of 

the  spirit  which  inclined  the  mind  to  allegori- 
cal and  mystical  interpretation,  and  prevented  deep 
researches  in  philology.  In  Italy  and  in  free  Holland 
secular  learning  was  within  the  reach  of  the  Jew: 
Azariah  dei  Rossi  in  the  sixteenth  century,  who  trans- 
lated the  Epistle  of  Aristeas  into  Hebrew  and  revived 
interest  in  the  long  forgotten  Alexandrian  version, 
stood  like  an  isolated  peak,  and  was  far  in  advance 
of  his  time,  and  Manasseh  ben  Israel  in  the  seven- 
teenth century,  who  appealed  to  Cromwell  for  the 
re-admission  of  his  co-religionists  into  England,  was 
in  touch  with  the  Dutch  school  of  Christian  Hebra- 
ists, and  utilised  his  wide  learning  in  the  effort  to 
straighten  out  biblical  difficulties.  His  erudite  work, 
the  Conciliador,  written  in  Spanish,  has  been  trans- 
lated into  Latin,  Italian,  and  English.  From  the 
Levant  and  Italy  hailed  the  two  students  of  the 
Masorah,  a  difficult  and  abstruse  subject  which  else- 
where was  left  severely  alone:  Menahem  Lonzano 


MODERN  TRANSLATIONS  85 

(1618)  and  Solomon  Jedidiah  Norzi  (1626).  In 
1628  a  Jew  of  Posen,  Isaac  Levita,  anticipated 
Alting's  philosophical  treatment  of  Hebrew  gram- 
mar, and  in  the  early  eighteenth  century  Solomon 
Hanau  in  Germany,  who  sustained  himself  as  an 
elementary  teacher  travelling  from  place  to  place, 
propounded  novel  theories  of  vowel  development  in 
Hebrew.  For  the  most  part  the  best  minds  of  Ger- 
many and  Poland  exercised  themselves  in  the  casu- 
istry of  the  Talmud  and  the  codes  or  were  immersed 
in  mysticism.  Once  more  the  Talmud  overshadowed 
the  Bible,  and  the  most  that  was  done  in  the  exposi- 
tion of  the  Scriptures  consisted  in  writing  long- 
winded  supercommentaries.  The  German  Jews  of 
the  eighteenth  century  were,  with  a  few  exceptions, 
devoid  of  secular  education;  the  instruction  of  the 
youth  was  in  the  hands  of  teachers  from  the  East  to 
whom  a  Hebrew  grammar  was  an  impious  book.  In 
The  Second  this  environment  grew  up  the  man  to 
Keturn  to  whom  it  fell  to  effect  the  second  return 
the  Bible.  to  the  Bible,  which  paved  the  way  for 
the  Jewish  renaissance — a  revolution  of 
Jewish  thought  and  life  penetrating  the  darkest 
corners  of  the  East  and  creating  multitudinous  prob- 
lems of  adjustment  which  to  the  present  day  occupy 
the  minds  of  Jewish  leaders. 


86  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

Moses  Mendelssohn,  the  popularizer  of  Wolffian 

philosophy  and  the  man  of  letters  who  enjoyed  the 

friendship  of  Lessing  and  his  circle,  opened  a  new 

epoch  through  his  translation  into  High  German  of 

biblical  books,  in  particular  of  the  Pentateuch.     Its 

effect  upon  his  co-religionists  was  twofold.    It  served 

__     -  ,     ,  as  a  text-book  for  acquiring  the  Ian- 
Mendelssohn  ^  ,        ,  ,,.,,, 

,  ,  .  sfuasfe  of  the  educated,  which  led  natu- 

and  his  ^  „^         ^      .,.     .  •  ,     ,      ^ 

-  ,     .  rally  to  familiarity  with  the  German 

literature  and  German  culture.  Then 
again  inwardly  it  wrought  a  change  by  luring  away 
the  youth  from  the  narrower  occupation  with  codes 
and  casuistry  to  the  wider  field  of  biblical  interpre- 
tation and  to  the  appreciation  of  the  Scriptures  as 
literature  demanding  and  creating  an  aesthetic  taste. 
The  translation  was  accompanied  by  a  commentary 
in  Hebrew,  rational  and  grammatical,  for  which  the 
best  of  the  older  commentators  were  excerpted  and 
in  part  the  results  of  Christian  research  were  utilized ; 
while  Mendelssohn  himself  wrote  a  considerable  por- 
tion thereof,  the  more  difficult  books  were  expounded 
by  his  collaborators,  notably  the  grammarian  Solo- 
mon Dubno  and  the  poet  Hartwig  Wessely.  Though 
the  work  won  the  approbation  of  the  Berlin  rabbinate, 
it  was  put  under  the  ban  by  the  spiritual  leaders  of 
Altona,  Fiirth,  and  Frankfort-on-the-Main ;  the  un- 
compromising   Moses    Sofer,    who    died   in    1839. 


MODERN  TRANSLATIONS  87 

admonished  his  children  to  refrain   from  reading 

Mendelssohn's  writings.     The  friends  and  disciples 

of  the  philosopher,   of  whom  the  best  known  is 

David    Friedlander     (1750-1834),    completed    the 

work  of  translation  and  exposition  for  the  rest  of 

the  Bible.    The  coterie  of  scholars  who  handled  the 

Hebrew  language  with  the  skill  of  the  best  medieval 

writers  came  to  be  known  as  the  Biurists,  from  the 

word  Biur  (interpretation)  by  which  the  commen- 

tary  was  designated.     What  characterizes 

^.     .,      them  is  a  sober  rationalism,  which,  however, 
Bmnsts. 

lacked  the   solid   foundation  of  historical 

perspective  and  critical  acumen.     To  the  Mendels- 

sohnian  era  belongs  Judah  Loeb  Benseeb  (died  in 

181 1 ),  the  grammarian  and  lexicographer;  Ignaz 

Jeitteles  ( 1773- 1838),  the  author  of  a  very  imperfect 

grammar  of  the  Aramaic ;  and  Solomon  Pappenheim 

(1740-1814),   the  writer  on   Hebrew   synonymies. 

Under  the  spell  of  the  sage  of  Berlin  stood  likewise 

the  fine  grammarian  and  student  of  the  Masorah 

Wolf  Heidenheim   (1757-1832).     The 
Rise  of  the      .  ^  ^^\      ^.  ^ 

.  nmeteenth  century  saw  the  rise  of  the 

scientific   school,   headed    by    Solomon 
Judah  Rapoport  (1790- 1867)  and  Leo- 
pold Zunz  (1794- 1 886).    Obscure  periods  in  Jewish 
history   and   large   important   portions    of   Jewish 


88  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

literature  were  made  the  subject  of  painstaking  inves- 
tigations characterized  by  vast  erudition  as  well  as 
by  the  application  of  the  critical  method.  Zunz  made 
noteworthy  contributions  to  bibhcal  criticism;  the 

,     „         German   translation   of   the    Bible,    with 
The  Zunz      ,  .  ,   ,  •  •  ^   ,  i        i 

which  his  name  is  associated,  was  largely 

the  work  of  Arnheim,  Fiirst,  and  Sachs, 
and  served  a  practical  need  (1837-8).  In  general  it 
may  be  said  that,  with  notable  exceptions,  the  scholars 
who  followed  Zunz's  lead  in  the  building  up  of  the 
science  of  Judaism  left  the  Bible  severely  alone. 
Abraham  Geiger  (1810-1874),  who  early 
in  life  came  under  the  influence  of  Heiden- 
heim,  had  the  sagacity  to  recognize  that  the  structure 
which  these  men  were  rearing  would  be  incomplete 
unless  a  reverential  but  at  the  same  time  critical  study 
of  the  Bible  were  included,  and  that,  so  long  as  Jew- 
ish scholars,  bent  upon  discoveries  in  new  soil,  dis- 
dained exploring  the  mines  of  the  old  biblical  field, 
the  Christian  hegemony  in  Bible  work  would  remain 
in  force.  In  an  epoch-making  work,  by  which  bibli- 
cal scholars  of  the  subsequent  generation,  both  among 
Jews  and  Christians,  were  profoundly  stimulated, 
Geiger  sought  to  trace  the  inner  history  of  the  origi- 
nal text  and  the  ancient  versions  as  it  kept  pace  with 
the  progress  of  religious  ideas  in  Judaism.     The 


MODERN  TRANSLATIONS  89 

arguments  in  detail  have  proved  capable  of  correction 
in  the  light  of  newer  finds  and  knowledge,  but  the 
main  thesis  of  the  book  remains  unshaken.  Zechariah 
Frankel  (i  801 -1875),  ^^^^  ^^^t  head  of  the  Breslau 
Rabbinical  Seminary,  made  the  Alexandrian  version 
the  subject  of  fruitful  studies,  and  his  younger  col- 
league, the  far-famed  historian  of  the  Jewish  people, 
Heinrich  Graetz  (1817-1891),  made  noteworthy  con- 
tributions to  biblical  science.  It  will  suffice  to  single 
out  his  works  on  the  Song  of  Songs  and  Ecclesiastes 
( 1871 )  and  his  two  volumes  on  the  Psalter  ( 1882-3  ) . 
It  must  be  owned  that  in  these  works,  as  well  as 
in  his  '  Emendations  '  posthumously  published  by 
Bacher  ( 1892-3) ,  he  shows  an  all  too  facile  method  of 
dealing  with  the  received  text.  In  Italy,  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  nineteenth  century,  Isaac  Samuel  Reggio 
( 1 784- 1 85 5)  was  the  author  of  an  Italian  translation 
of  the  Pentateuch  accompanied  by  a  Hebrew  com- 
mentary (Vienna  1821),  both  still  largely  under  the 
influence  of  the  Mendelssohnian  school.  From  him 
proceeded  the  impetus  to  the  foundation  of  the  Rab- 
binical School  at  Padua;  to  its  head, 
Samuel  David  Luzzatto  ( 1 800- 1 865  ) ,  un- 
questionably belongs  the  first  rank  among  modern 
Jewish  students  of  the  Bible.  It  may  be  said  of  him 
that  he  raised  biblical  studies  among  the  Jews  to 


90  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

the  dignity  of  a  specialty,  requiring  a  man's  whole 
time  and  energy  and  pursued  as  a  profession.  Scion 
of  an  ancient  family  from  which  had  sprung  many 
erudite  scholars,  he  possessed  a  wide  range  of  Jewish 
and  secular  knowledge,  and  wrote  Hebrew  with  mas- 
terly efficiency.  He  had  access  to  rare  manuscript 
treasures,  and  was  at  home  in  the  medieval  literature 
of  the  best  Jewish  grammarians  and  commentators. 
His  study  of  Onkelos  was  epoch-making,  and  stimu- 
lated Geiger's  researches ;  he  wrote  a  Hebrew  gram- 
mar in  Italian  on  modern  lines ;  his  grammar  of  the 
biblical  (and  talmudic)  Aramaic  elicited  the  praises 
of  Noldeke ;  his  commentary  on  Isaiah  and  his  shorter 
comments  on  other  books  of  the  Bible  show  the  pains- 
taking scholar  and  judicious  critic;  his  translations 
of  several  biblical  books  into  Italian,  notably  of  Job 
( 1853),  Isaiah  (1855),  ^^^^  the  Pentateuch  (187 1-6), 
were  based  on  a  thorough  acquaintance  with  Hebrew 
in  all  its  stages,  and  bore  witness  to  a  deep  love  for 
Judaism  and  the  monuments  of  the  past.  He  was  a 
bitter  foe  of  the  Northern  innovations  which  meant 
to  him  the  surrender  of  Judaism  to  the  spirit  of  Hel- 
lenism, and  he  was  equally  severe  on  Ibn  Ezra  and 
Maimonides  for  their  compromise  with  the  alien 
spirit.  While  Luzzatto  with  all  his  battling  against 
the  forces  of  disintegration  remained  the  objective 
student  who  sought  the  truth  and  knew  how  to  keep 


MODERN  TRANSLATIONS  91 

apart  the  plain  meaning  of  the  Scriptures  scientifically 

ascertained   and   the   later   outgrowth   of   rabbinic 

interpretation,     Samson    Raphael    Hirsch 

(1808- 1 888),  the  protagonist  of  orthodoxy 

„.     „       in  the  West,  subordinated  in  his  German 
Sirscii 

Pentateuch  (1867)  the  Bible  word  to  tra- 
dition; on  more  original  lines  worked  in  the  East 
Meir  Leibush  Malbim  (1809- 1879),  who  sought 
to  prove  by  fine  observations  of  the  idiom 
of  the  Scriptures  how  the  tradition  of  the 
rabbis  was  rooted  in  the  biblical  word.  On  similar 
lines,  in  our  own  days,  D.  Hoffmann  (1843 — )» 
who  successfully  combated  Wellhausen  on  his  own 
ground  (1904),  produced  a  notable  commentary  on 
Leviticus  (1905-6)  and  on  Deuteronomy  (the  first 
part,  1913).  Luzzatto  and  Malbim  were  drawn 
upon  half  a  century  ago  by  the  learned  Franz 
Delitzsch;  to-day  it  is  gratifying  to  note  the  fre- 
quency with  which  Christian  commentators  make 
mention  of  a  living  Jewish  Bible  student, 
Arnold  B.  Ehrlich,  an  American  by  long 
residence  in  this  country.  His  great  work  on  the 
Bible,  first  published  in  Hebrew,  which  he  master- 
fully handles,  and  latterly,  in  much  enlarged  form, 
in  German  (seven  volumes,  1908-14;  the  book  of 
Psalms  is  dealt  with  in  a  separate  volume  which 
appeared  in   1905),   though   marred  by  irrelevant 

7 


92  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

attacks  on  time-hallowed  tradition  and  by  the  con- 
fident spirit  with  which  untenable  positions  are  ad- 
vanced, is  nevertheless  replete  with  solid  and  original 
observations,  testifying  to  a  profound  insight  into 
Hebrew  idiom. 

With  the  entry  of  the  Jew  into  modern  civilization, 
Bible  translations  into  various  European  languages 

„       ,  ,.  became  a  necessity.     Foremost  stands 

Translations      ,     ^        ,-^..,1/0  \    .^  1 

.  ,  ^  .  the  French  Bible  (183 1 -51),  the  work 
into  Vanous  ^     \  u-  u 

of  the  erudite   S.   Cahen,  which  v/as 

enriched  by  many  contributions  from 
anguages.       ^^^  ^^^  ^^  Solomon  Munk  (1803-67) 

and  Leopold  Dukes.  Lazare  Wogue  is  the  author  of 
another  French  version  ( incomplete ;  the  Pentateuch 
appeared  1860-9),  which  was  largely  the  basis  of 
a  popular  version  by  members  of  the  rabbinate  in 
France,  under  the  direction  of  Zadoc  Kahn  the  chief 
rabbi  (1899- 1906).  In  Germany  the  translations  by 
Philippson  (1839-56),  Herxheimer  (1840-8),  and 
Furst  (1874)  showed  progress.  In  Holland,  a 
Dutch  translation  by  S.  I.  Mulder  was  printed  be- 
tween 1826  and  1838  (incomplete)  ;  in  1901  the  Pen- 
tateuch was  rendered  afresh  into  Dutch  by  A.  S. 
Onderwijser.  In  Italy,  Luzzatto's  pupils  produced 
a  complete  Italian  version  (1868-75).  The  Penta- 
teuch and  the  Psalter  have  been  done  into  Russian  by 
L.  I.  Mandelstamm  (1862,  1864).     A  Hungarian 


MODERN  TRANSLATIONS  93 

translation  was  prepared  from  materials  supplied  by 
Immanuel  Low,  Gyula  Fischer,  and  other  rabbis,  by 
an  editorial  committee  consisting  of  Vilmos  Bacher, 
Jozsef  Banoczi,  and  Samuel  Krauss;  it  was  issued 
in  1 898- 1 907  by  the  Jewish  Hungarian  Literary 
1  +•  Society.     In  England  Isaac  Delgado, 

.  .    T.     ^' ^      *  teacher  of  the  Hebrew  Language,' 
into  English.        •  ^   ,  •         o  t-     i-  u  ^ 

prmted  m  1789  a  new  English  trans- 
lation of  the  Pentateuch  in  the  form  of  correc- 
tions of  '  the  present  translation  [i.  e.,  the  King 
James  Version]  wherever  it  deviates  from  the  genu- 
ine sense  of  the  Hebrew  expressions,  or  where  it 
renders  obscure  the  meaning  of  the  text,  or,  lastly, 
when  it  occasions  a  seeming  contradiction,*  dedi- 
cating his  work  to  Dr.  Shute  Barrington,  Lord 
Bishop  of  Salisbury.  Selig  Newman  published  in 
1839  his  Emendations  of  the  Authorized  Version, 
and  the  learned  Kalisch  wrote  a  valuable  commentary 
in  EngHsh  on  Exodus  (1855),  Genesis  (1858),  and 
Leviticus  (1867-72).  Benisch  gave  Anglo- Jewry  a 
complete  translation  of  the  Scriptures,  which,  while 
in  the  legal  portions  of  the  Pentateuch  it  faith- 
fully reproduced  Jewish  opinion,  was  intended  other- 
wise to  be  an  impartial  product;  it  appeared  in 
185 1-6.  Michael  Friedlander,  the  translator  of 
Maimonides'  Guide  of  the  Perplexed,  is  responsible 
for  another  translation  which  represents  the  Author- 


94  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

ized  Version  of  the  Anglican  Church  sHghtly  re- 
touched (1884).     In  America,  in  the  city  of  Phila- 
delphia, where  the  first  Hebrew  Bible  (1814)  was 
,     printed   in  this  hemisphere,   Isaac  Leeser 
...  issued  in  1853  ^  complete  version  of  the 

Hebrew  Scriptures  in  English,  which  for 
more  than  half  a  century  has  held  its  place  in  Ameri- 
can and  English  synagogues.  Leeser  based  himself 
in  style  upon  the  King  James  Version,  *  which  for 
simplicity  cannot  be  surpassed  ' ;  but  the  changes 
introduced  by  him  are  so  many  and  so  great  that  his 
translation  may  lay  claim  to  being  an  independent 
work.  A  specialist  in  Hebrew  philology  he  certainly 
was  not,  nor  did  he  consider  himself  such;  but  he 
made  good  use  of  the  various  German  translations 
by  Jews  in  the  preceding  eighty  years,  and  he  is  much 
dependent  upon  the  Biurists,  Zunz,  and  the  notes  in 
Philippson's  Bible. 

While  thus   Jewish   scholars,   for   the 

-     ,.  distinct   needs   of   the   Synagogue,   were 

Anglican  ,  .        ,  ,  -^       .  .      '       , 

.  applymg  themselves  to  a  revision  of  the 

_     .  venerable  version  in  use  by  the  Anglican 

Church,  improved  versions  of  Exodus, 
Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  Ezekiel,  Jonah,  Zechariah,  Lamen- 
tations, and  Daniel  were  attempted  by  Lowth  ( 1778) , 
Hopkins  (1784),  Blayney  (1784),  Newcome  (1788), 
Wintle  (1792),  and  Benjoin  (1796).    At  the  begin- 


MODERN  TRANSLATIONS  95 

ning  of  the  nineteenth  century  several  complete  trans- 
lations appeared.  But  all  these  were  private  under- 
takings. Definite  steps  to  secure  a  new  English 
Bible  for  use  by  the  Church  of  England,  which, 
while  basing  itself  upon  the  translation  of  1611, 
was  to  embody  the  results  of  modern  investigation, 
were  not  taken  until  1870.  It  was  issued  from 
the  press  in  1885.  A  volume  containing  the  Apoc- 
rypha appeared  in  1895.  The  work  of  revision 
was  distributed  among  two  companies,  one  taking 
over  the  Apocrypha.  In  each  company  sat  schol- 
ars and  divines  of  renown  from  the  Church  of 
England  and  the  dissenting  Churches.  Among  them 
were  Payne  Smith,  the  Syriac  scholar;  Cheyne, 
Davidson,  and  Driver,  experts  in  matters  of  inter- 
pretation ;  Field,  a  master  of  the  Greek  versions ;  the 
Orientalist  Sayce ;  the  Arabist  W.  Robertson  Smith ; 
and  for  questions  affecting  the  Hebrew  text  Chris- 
tian David  Ginsburg,  born  a  Jew,  who  with  Frens- 
dorff,  the  Jewish  school  director  at  Hanover,  and  S. 
Baer,  the  Rhenish  teacher  in  an  elementary  Jewish 
school,  divided  the  honors  of  masoretic  lore  in  the 
nineteenth  century.  They  did  their  work  in  792 
days  in  a  space  of  fourteen  years.  Two  further  com- 
panies were  at  work  in  America,  and  there  were  con- 
stant exchanges  of  discussion  between  England  and 
this  country.     The  method  of  work  is  described  by 


96  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

the  English  Company  in  the  following  words :  '  In 
the  first  Revision  it  was  the  practice  for  the  Secretary 
to  read  over  each  verse,  first  in  the  original  and  then 
in  the  Authorized  Version :  the  proposals  for  change 
were  then  taken ;  first  those  communicated  in  writing 
by  absent  members,  and  next  those  made  by  the  mem- 
bers present.  Each  proposal  was  moved,  and  if  sec- 
onded was  discussed  and  voted  upon ;  the  decision  in 
the  first  Revision  being  by  a  majority  only.  If  a  pro- 
posal met  with  no  seconder,  it  was  not  discussed  but 
allowed  to  drop.  In  the  Second  Revision,  the  Secre- 
tary read  out  in  order  the  changes  which  had  been 
made  at  the  first  Revision;  if  these  were  unchallenged 
they  were  allowed  to  remain,  otherwise  they  were  put 
to  the  vote  and  affirmed  or  rejected  according  as  they 
were  or  were  not  supported  by  the  requisite  majority 
of  two-thirds.  In  the  second  Revision  new  proposi- 
tions could  only  be  made  by  special  permission  of  the 
Company,  and  discussion  was  limited,  as  far  as  pos- 
sible, to  exceptional  cases.  In  the  final  review,  which 
was  in  reality  the  completion  of  the  second  Revision, 
the  Company  employed  themselves  in  making  a  gen- 
eral survey  of  what  they  had  done,  deciding  finally 
upon  reserved  points,  harmonizing  inconsistencies, 
smoothing  down  roughnesses,  removing  unnecessary 
changes,  and  generally  giving  finish  and  completeness 
to  their  work.     Everything  in  this  final  survey  was 


MODERN  TRANSLATIONS  97 

decided  by  a  vote  of  a  majority  of  two- thirds.'  They 
wisely  refrained  from  altering  the  received  Hebrew 
text,  although  here  and  there  they  followed  in  the 
footsteps  of  the  older  version  in  giving  room  to  a 
tacit  change.  The  merits  of  the  Revised  Version,  as 
it  has  come  to  be  called,  rest  chiefly  upon  changes  of 
interpretation  in  which  ample  use  was  made  of  the 
progress  of  biblical  science  which  I  have  attempted 
to  sketch  above.  So  far  as  the  language  is  concerned, 
they  endeavored  to  retain  that  of  the  version  of  i6i  i ; 
where  its  wording  had  to  be  changed  because  of  an 
altered  meaning  which  had  to  be  adopted,  care  was 
taken  that  the  diction  was  on  a  level  with  the  older 
Elizabethan  and  Jacobean  English.  It  was  a  bold 
undertaking  to  attempt  to  write  in  the  Victorian  age 
the  English  of  three  centuries  ago ;  but  in  the  main, 
and  despite  the  cavilling  of  critics,  they  succeeded. 
Archaic  expressions  were  changed  into  less  obsolete 
phraseology,  likewise  borrowed  from  past  models. 
The  revision  was  assailed  most  bitterly  by  Dean 
Burgon  in  a  series  of  articles,  learned  but  extravagant 
and  intemperate.  Nevertheless  the  Revised  Version 
has  steadily  gained  ground.  The  American  edition 
of  the  Revised  Version,  printed  by  Thomas  Nelson 
&  Sons  (1900-01),  embodies  the  changes  proposed 
by  the  American  companies  and  rejected  by  their 
English  fellow-workers.    A  questionable  innovation 


98  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

on  the  part  of  the  American  editors  was  the  substitu- 
tion of  Jehovah  for  '  Lord  '  to  express  the  tetra- 
grammaton. 

Less  far-reaching  was  the  revision  of  Luther's 
version  undertaken  by  a  commission  of  theologians 
belonging  to  the  various  factions  of  the  Lutheran 
Church  in  Germany.  A  resolution  favoring  the 
project  was  carried  at  the  Church  Conference  of 
Eisenach  in  1861  and  1863.  The  first  draft  ('  Pro- 
_,     p  bebibel')    was  printed  in   1883,   the 

_,     .  .  work  of  revision  was  broug-ht  to  a  con- 

ReVlSlOn.  ,         .  ,  ^  r  r    tt     n        • 

_,  .     ^  elusion  at  the  Conference  of  Halle  m 

Private 

-_  ,  ^  , .  1890  and  was  issued  in  final  form  m 
Undertakings.     „^        ,  .      ,  .  j  1 

1892.     It  was  at  once  circulated  by 

the  Wiirttemberg  Bible  Society,  while  in  Northern 

Germany  it  has  met  with  a  lukewarm  reception.    Of 

a  private  character  and  with  the  avowed  purpose  of 

bringing  to  the  notice  of  the  educated  laity  the  results 

of  the  newer  criticism  were  the  undertakings  by 

Eduard  Reuss,  first  in  French  ( 1874-81 )  and  then  in 

German  (posthumously  published  in  1892-4),  and  by 

Emil  Kautzsch  (with  the  assistance  of  a  number  of 

scholars;  first  edition  1890-4;  third  edition  1909-12). 

Both  are  accompanied  by  notes  and  furnished  with 

introductions;    in    point    of    originality    and    taste 

Reuss's  work  is  the  superior  product.    On  a  par  with 

Kautzsch's  Bible  stands  the  Dutch  version  by  Kuenen, 


MODERN  TRANSLATIONS  99 

Hooykas,  Kosters,  and  Oort  (1899-1901),  which 
embodies  many  deviations  from  the  received  Hebrew 
text.  The  Variorum  Bible,  edited  by  Cheyne  and 
Driver  (1876,  third  edition  1888),  gives,  under  the 
text  of  the  King  James  Version,  improved  renderings 
and  readings.  We  are  further  indebted  to  these  two 
scholars  for  fresh  translations  of  parts  of  the  Scrip- 
tures which  are  distinguished  by  learning  and  ele- 
gance of  style. 

With  the  exodus  of  Jews  from  the  east  of  Europe 
to  the  American  continent,  which  began  in  1881,  and 
the  gradual  shifting  of  the  Jewish 
center  to  this  hemisphere  making 
for  the  largest  aggregate  of  English- 
speaking  Jews  in  the  world,  the  need 


The  New 
Translation 
published  by 
the  Jewish 
Publication 
Society  of 
America. 


of  a  new  English  version  of  the  Bible 
for  use  in  synagogue,  home,  and  school 
was  bound  to  make  itself  felt.  Leeser's 
noble  translation  was  there,  but  a  work 
resting  in  the  main  upon  the  German  efforts  of  the 
concluding  decades  of  the  eighteenth  and  the  earlier 
period  of  the  nineteenth  century  was  clearly  inade- 
quate at  the  end  of  the  century  when  noteworthy  con- 
tributions to  biblical  learning  had  been  made  by  Jews 
and  Christians.  The  project  was  conceived  at  the 
second  biennial  convention  (1892)  of  the  Jewish 
Publication  Society  of  America  (organized  in  1888). 


100  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

The  plan,  as  worked  out  by  a  sub-committee  in  1893 
and  adopted  in  1894,  called  for  a  revision  based  on 
Leeser.  By  1896  a  Revision  Committee  consisting 
of  a  number  of  Jewish  scholars  in  America  and 
England,  each  member  undertaking  a  separate  book, 
was  at  work,  and  their  labors  were  to  be  passed  on 
by  an  Editorial  Committee  presided  over  by  Dr. 
Marcus  Jastrow,  the  learned  author  of  a  Dictionary 
of  the  Talmud,  as  Editor-in-chief.  As  the  work  pro- 
gressed, it  became  evident  that  the  undertaking  was 
more  in  the  nature  of  a  fresh  attempt  at  translation 
than  of  a  mere  revision  of  a  previous  effort ;  accord- 
ingly, the  Book  of  Psalms,  which  had  been  allotted 
to  a  member  of  the  Editorial  Committee,  Dr.  K. 
Kohler,  was  issued  from  the  press  in  advance  of  the 
whole  Bible.  The  small  volume,  neatly  printed  in  a 
handy  form,  appeared  in  1903.  Dr.  Jastrow,  who 
had  seen  it  through  the  press,  died  two  months  before 
its  publication.  In  1905  the  Editorial  Board  was 
reorganized  under  the  presidency  of  Dr.  S.  Schechter, 
formerly  of  Cambridge,  England,  and  then  head  of 
the  Jewish  Theological  Seminary  of  America  in 
New  York.  It  was  found,  however,  that  the  method 
of  carrying  on  the  editing  of  the  translations  thus  far 
submitted  through  consultation  by  correspondence 
was  slow  and  ineffective.  At  length,  in  1908,  Dr. 
Cyrus  Adler,  representing  the  Jewish  Publication 


MODERN  TRANSLATIONS  loi 

Society,  and  Dr.  David  Philipson,  on  behalf  of  the 
Central  Conference  of  American  Rabbis,  which  body 
had  taken  up  a  project  of  issuing  the  Revised  Version 
of  1885  in  a  form  suitable  for  the  Synagogue,  came  to 
an  agreement  which  provided  for  a  new  Editorial 
Board  consisting  of  seven  members,  three  to  be 
chosen  by  the  Conference  and  three  by  the  Publica- 
tion Society,  while  the  seventh  member  who  was  to 
be  agreeable  to  both  bodies  should  be  Editor-in-chief. 
The  choice  for  the  latter  office  fell  upon  the  present 
writer,  who,  upon  receiving  his  instructions  from  the 
Chairman  of  the  Publication  Committee  of  the  Jewish 
Publication  Society,  gave  his  entire  time  to  the  work 
for  a  space  of  eleven  months,  from  September  i, 
1908,  to  August  I,  1909,  during  which  period  he 
prepared  a  manuscript  draft  of  the  new  version.  In 
addition  to  manuscripts  prepared  by  the  former 
Revision  Committee,  some  of  which  had  been  revised 
by  the  old  Editorial  Committee  and  were  accompanied 
by  learned  annotations  chiefly  from  the  pen  of  the 
late  Dr.  Jastrow,  he  had  before  him  the  two  Anglican 
versions  of  161 1  and  1885,  Leeser's  work  of  1853, 
other  translations  in  various  European  languages 
done  by  Jews,  and  while  he  naturally  surrounded 
himself  with  an  apparatus  including  the  best  efforts, 
old  and  new,  of  biblical  scholars,  rejecting  no  help 
from  whatever  source  it  came,  he  made  it  his  busi- 


102  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

ness  to  consult  at  first  hand  the  ancient  versions 
and  the  chief  Jewish  commentators  of  medieval  and 
modern  times.  When  in  December  1908  he  met  his 
colleagues  on  the  Board  (to  which  by  appointment  he 
acted  as  Secretary)  consisting  of  Drs.  S.  Schechter, 
Cyrus  Adler,  and  Joseph  Jacobs,  representing  the 
Publication  Society,  and  Drs.  K.  Kohler,  David 
Philipson,  and  Samuel  Schulman,  representing  the 
Conference  of  Rabbis,  he  set  forth  to  them  the  prin- 
ciples which  had  guided  him  in  the  preparation  of  the 
draft,  a  transcript  of  which  containing  the  Penta- 
teuch had  been  forwarded  to  all  of  them  in  advance. 
The  principles  were  discussed  and  somewhat  modi- 
fied by  the  whole  Board,  the  body  electing  Dr.  Cyrus 
Adler  as  its  Chairman.  Through  sixteen  sessions, 
each  lasting  ten  days  or  more,  from  1908-15,  the 
body  of  scholars  worked  in  conference  upon  the  draft 
submitted  to  them.  The  mode  of  procedure  was  as 
follows:  the  propositions  embodied  in  the  manu- 
script draft,  if  unchallenged,  were  allowed  to  remain. 
When  challenged,  a  new  proposal  was  made  and,  if 
seconded,  discussed.  A  vote  was  then  taken,  and  if 
supported  by  majority,  the  proposal  was  entered.  In 
the  case  of  a  tie,  the  Chairman  had  the  casting  vote. 
The  first  proofs  of  the  manuscript  thus  amended  were 
sent  out  to  all  the  seven  members  of  the  Board.  The 
result  was  a  mass  of  annotations  returned  by  the 


MODERN  TRANSLATIONS  103 


Editors,  infelicities  of  expression  and  imperfections 
of  style  being  removed  and  good  renderings  excised 
that  they  might  make  room  for  better,  and  so  many 
of  them  as  were  supported  by  a  majority  or  could  be 
disposed  of  by  a  general  rule  of  the  Board  were  imme- 
diately spread  upon  the  proofs.  There  remained  a 
small  number,  less  than  three  hundred  instances, 
which  it  was  thought  proper  to  reserve  for  discuss- 
sion  in  a  final  meeting,  the  seventeenth,  which  took 
place  in  the  autumn  of  191 5.  On  this  occasion  like- 
wise the  vote  of  the  majority  prevailed,  the  Chair- 
man again  being  given  the  casting  vote  in  the  case  of 
a  tie.  Two  members  of  the  Board,  Drs.  Schechter 
and  Jacobs,  alas,  died  shortly  after  the  final  session. 
The  task  of  seeing  the  work  through  the  press  fell  to 
the  surviving  members,  and  no  efforts  were  spared  to 
guard  against  misprints  and  to  insure  typographical 
neatness.  The  cost  of  preparing  the  manuscript 
and  of  printing  the  first  edition  was  borne  by  the 
Jewish  Publication  Society,  which  at  an  early  stage 
had  created  a  Bible  Fund;  the  largest  contribution 
amounting  to  $50,000  came  from  that  noble  patron 
of  Jewish  learning,  Mr.  Jacob  H.  Schiff.  Not  only 
was  the  gift  ample  to  cover  the  expenses  of  the  pres- 
ent undertaking,  but  a  balance  was  left  for  an  enter- 
prise which  was  the  chief  concern  of  the  late  Dr. 
Schechter  who  constantly  urged  it  upon  his  col- 


104  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

leagues  of  the  Publication  Committee.      It  is  the 

scheme  of  preparing  a  popular  commentary  on  the 

Bible  in  the  English  language.     The  first-fruits  of 

the  Commentary  plan,  which  naturally  it  will  take  a 

generation  to  carry  to  a  finish,  appeared  in  1908  in 

the  shape  of  a  small  volume  containing  the  Book  of 

Micah  in  English  with  an  accompanying  commentary. 

^,     „    .,  The   present   writer   is   too   closely 

The  Merits      . ,      .^   f     .  ,     ,  ^., ,  ,  ■' 

^  ,,     „        identmed  with  the  new  Bible  transla- 
of  the  New  ,.,,,, 

tion,  which  leit  the  press  in  1917,  to 

express  an  opinion  on  its'  merits.  It 
will  not  escape  the  fate  of  the  two  Anglican  versions, 
and  it  will  be  the  subject  of  criticism.  If  it  will  sur- 
vive, superseding  perchance  Leeser's  single-handed 
effort,  its  place  in  the  estimation  of  the  competent 
judges  in  the  world  of  scholarship  and  in  the  affection 
of  the  hearts  of  the  Jewish  people  in  all  lands  where 
the  English  tongue  is  spoken  by  them  will  be  due  to 
whatever  scholarly  accuracy,  simplicity  of  diction, 
and  closeness  to  Jewish  sentiment  it  may  possess.  Its 
salient  feature,  as  the  reader  will  gather  from  the 
Preface,  consists  in  the  happy  blending  of  the  double 
heritage  which  is  the  Jew's  in  the  vast  domains  of 
the  English  Empire  and  in  these  United  States.  No 
translation  in  the  English  tongue,  however,  can  be 
anything  but  a  revision,  a  revision  of  the  English 
Bible  of   161 1,  itself  a  revision.     All  attempts  at 


MODERN  TRANSLATIONS  105 

modernizing  the  Bible  English  must  necessarily  fail. 

Once  and  for  all  time  the  revisers  of  161 1  fixed  the 

model  for  all  future  undertakings.     Naturally  the 

later  revisions  of  the  nineteenth  century  constituted 

a  help  which  was  gratefully  made  use  of.    In  matters 

of  interpretation  there  was  great  room 

,  ,,  for  improvement.     The  Tew,  to  whom 

and  the  ,     ^    .  .  ,  , 

_    .  ^  the  Scriptures  were  given,  who  treasured 

Scnptures.     ,  ,       .  .        r        '  ^ 

the  sacred  writings  in  the  synagogues  of 

the  dispersion,  in  whose  memory  the  meaning  of  the 
original  largely,  if  not  wholly,  persisted,  who,  though 
at  times  he  might  be  swerved  into  far-off  fields  of 
mental  activity,  was  again  and  again  recalled  to  the 
Book,  may  be  trusted  to  have  a  truer  and  more  ade- 
quate knowledge  of  it.  A  wanderer  through  the 
nations,  he  has  spoken  many  tongues ;  for  the  unlet- 
tered he  provided  translations ;  but  he  never  lost  sight 
of  the  original,  a  minimum  knowledge  of  which  every 
Jew  must  possess,  while  the  thorough  interpretation 
was  left  to  the  care  of  the  specialist.  Whatever  the 
progress  of  biblical  learning  has  been,  however  thank- 
fully the  share  of  Christian  workers  in  the  vineyard 
of  the  Lord  must  be  acknowledged,  the  verbal  mean- 
ing of  the  Scriptures — and  with  that  alone  a  transla- 
tion is  concerned — stands  pretty  much  where  the 
Jewish  grammarians  and  commentators  of  the  Middle 
Ages  left  it.     '  Surely  a  poet  is  the  poet's  best  inter- 


io6  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

preter,  and  a  philosopher  the  philosopher's.  In  the 
same  manner  it  requires  a  religious  mind  to  under- 
stand psalmist  and  prophet,  and  only  he  that  is  nur- 
tured by  Jewish  thought,  itself  rooted  in  the  Scrip- 
tures, may  hope  to  master  the  scriptural  Word  in  its 
fullest  and  deepest  import.  Only  a  Jew  can  say  on 
approaching  Holy  Writ:  This  is  flesh  of  my  flesh, 
and  bone  of  my  bones.  He  must  possess  himself,  it 
is  true,  of  the  philological  method  and  the  completest 
apparatus;  but  he  alone  can  add  thereto  that  which 
ensures  fullest  comprehension :  the  love  for  his  own, 
for  the  thought  that  makes  his  innermost  soul  to 
throb,  which  still  lives  in  him  albeit  faintly,  so  that  his 
understanding  of  the  Scriptures,  mediated  though  it 
be  by  philological  effort,  becomes  to  a  considerable 
extent  indeed  immediate,  just  as  the  language  of  the 
Scriptures  is  to  him  in  a  large  measure  a  living 
tongue/ 


CHAPTER  VII 
AGENCIES  FOR  CIRCULATING  THE  BIBLE 

To  make  the  Word  of  God  understood  by  all  those 

to  whom  the  original  was  a  sealed  book  was  the  aim 

of  Bible  translation.    But  all  those  efforts  would  have 

failed  of  their  purpose  had  there  not  been  pious  souls 

who  made  it  their  business  to  render  the  work  of 

™,     ,r^    ,      ^    distribution  possible,  that  those  that 
The  Work  of  .1,1      -.i  ui  a 

^.  ,  .,    ,.  were  not  blessed  with  worldly  eoods 

Distnbution.         .  ,       .  ,    ,  1,    .      .1 

might  with  the  smallest  outlay  procure 

a  copy  of  the  Scriptures.  It  is  a  duty  incumbent  upon 
every  Jew  to  transcribe  the  Torah  or  to  have  someone 
else  transcribe  it  for  his  use.  The  copies  used  in  the 
synagogue  were  habitually  the  gift  of  wealthy  and 
generous  individuals.  Before  the  age  of  printing 
only  the  wealthy  could  afford  the  cost  of  having  Bible 
manuscripts  copied  or  of  securing  older  manuscripts 
by  purchase.  Such  copies  constituted  the  heirlooms 
of  families ;  and,  as  is  the  fate  of  all  books,  they  fre- 
quently changed  owners.  '  Wealth  and  riches  are  in 
his  house ;  and  his  merit  endureth  for  ever  ' — this 
blessing  the  rabbis  apply  to  him  who  causes  copies  of 
8 


io8  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

the  Scriptures  to  be  made  and  then  loans  them  to 
others.  The  Christian  monasteries  gave  employment 
to  their  inmates  through  the  multiplication  of  copies 
of  the  Scriptures ;  the  costlier  ones  with  their  illumi- 
nations were  works  of  art,  and  men,  but  particularly 
young  women,  who  boasted  of  good  penmanship, 
were  much  sought  after.  The  emperor  Constantine 
requested  Eusebius,  the  bishop  of  Caesarea,  to  supply 
him  with  fifty  copies  of  the  Bible  to  be  distributed 
among  the  principal  churches  of  Constantinople. 
Don  Samuel  Gacon  defrayed  the  expenses  of  the 
printing  of  the  Faro  Pentateuch  (1487)  ;  the  Ixar 
Pentateuch  (1490)  was  made  possible  through  the 
generosity  of  Solomon  son  of  Maimon  Salmati, 
and  the  Lisbon  Pentateuch  (1491)  names  a  certain 
R.  Ehezer  as  its  noble  Maecenas.  The  expense  of 
issuing  the  revised  French  Geneva  Bible  (1588)  was 
defrayed  *  by  certain  wealthy  men  who  sought  no 
gain  for  themselves  but  only  to  serve  God  and  His 
Church,'  and  that  of  producing  the  first  Bible  printed 
in  America  (Cambridge,  1663)  was  borne  by  the 
*  Corporation  for  the  Promoting  and  Propagating  of 
the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  in  New  England  '  founded 
in  1649.  The  Port  Royal  version  of  the  Gospels  in 
French  was  issued  in  1667  in  many  forms  and  sizes, 
including  very  cheap  editions  for  the  poor;  we  are 
told  that  pious  persons  '  sent  out  from  Paris  a  great 


AGENCIES  FOR  CIRCULATING  THE  BIBLE     109 

number  of  colporteurs  to  sell  copies  at  cost  price,  or 

even  less,  and  defrayed  the  expense  by  voluntary 

gifts.'     In  modern  times  societies  were  formed  for 

the  express  purpose  of  circulating  the  Scriptures. 

«    .  ^.      »  The  earliest  was  the  Cannstein  Bible 

Societies  for  ^      .  xt  n      <•        ^    ,  • 

,  ,.  Institute  at  Halle,  founded  m  1710, 
Circulating 

^,     „    .  ^  which  passed  at  the  founder's  death 
the  Scnptures. 

to  the  care  of  the  famous  Orphanage, 

founded  in  the  same  city  by  Francke  in  1698,  and  has 

issued  some  six  million  copies  of  the  Scriptures.    Far 

greater  have  been  the  achievements  of  the  British 

_  .^.  ,  and  Foreign  Bible  Society,  founded  in 

British  ^         _  ^,                ^  ,      ' 

,  _      .  1804.    In  the  year  of  the  tercentenary 

and  Foreign  -r                j                                     j 

^...    «    .  ^  of  the  King  Tames  Bible   (iQii)   it 

Bible  Society.  , ,       . ,.     ,,            ,      :  ^     ^ 

could  pride  itself  upon  having  spent 

nearly  sixteen  millions  sterling  and  issued  more  than 

two  hundred  and  twenty-nine  million  copies  of  the 

Church  Scriptures  complete  or  in  parts.  Versions  had 

been  published  in  some  five  hundred  languages  or  dia- 

.       .         lects.  In  America  the  earliest  Bible  Society 
American 

was  founded  at  Philadelphia  in  1808.  The 

_    .  ^         American  Bible  Society  was  organized  in 

Society.  r.     ^     '  1  .  ^    ^T     ^r        ,  .    ,      -r-,. 

1816  in  the  city  of  New  York,  with  Elias 
Boudinot  as  president.  It  has  now  a  record  of  a  cen- 
tury of  achievement.  One  hundred  and  fifteen  mil- 
lion Bibles  have  issued  from  its  presses;  its  total 
budget  for  191 5-16  aggregates  the  sum  of  $652,300. 


no  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

It  has  published  translations  in  over  a  hundred 
languages. 

To  these  two  Bible  Societies  we  are  indebted  for 
the  cheap  editions  of  the  Bible  in  Hebrew.  The  large 
edition  of  the  masoretic  text  by  the  late  C.  D.  Gins- 
burg  is  being  issued  at  the  expense  of  the  British 

^,     ^  Bible  Society.     In  Ensrland,  an  En- 

The  Languages 

-  .  ,  gflish    Bible    may    be    had    for    the 

m  which 

^,     «    .  ^  price  of  tenpence  and  in  this  country 

the  Scriptures     ^  ^  .r-,  ,     , 

for  seventeen  cents.     Ihroug-h  the 
are  read 

^    -  medium  of  the  many  versions,  natu- 

to-day.  1,     r       1  ,        ,         , 

rally  for  the  most  part  based  on  the 

Anglican  Church  Bible,  the  Hebrew  Scriptures, 
wholly  or  in  part,  have  penetrated  into  the  darkest 
nooks  of  the  five  continents,  and  have  reached  the 
farthest  isles  of  the  sea.  In  Europe,  the  Bible  has 
been  made  accessible  not  only  in  the  manifold  dialects 
of  the  English  language,  but  also  in  Irish,  Manx, 
Gaelic — Welsh,  Cornish,  Breton  (Celtic)  ;  in  Ice- 
landic, Norwegian,  Swedish,  Danish  (Scandina- 
vian) ;  next  to  (High)  German  also  in  Dutch  and 
Flemish;  in  the  descendants  of  the  Latin,  Italian, 
French,  Spanish,  Portuguese,  Romansch  (in  the  val- 
leys of  the  Upper  Inn  and  Upper  Rhine),  Rouma- 
nian ;  in  Modern  Greek  and  in  Albanian ;  next  to  the 
Church  Slavonic,  in  Russian,  Polish,  Bohemian,  Ser- 
vian, Croatian,  Slovak,  Slovenian,  Bulgarian ;  in  the 


AGENCIES  FOR  CIRCULATING  THE  BIBLE     in 

Baltic  languages,  Lithuanian,  Lettish,  Wend;  in 
Ossete  (Central  Caucasus).  On  both  slopes  of  the 
Pyrenees  the  Scriptures  are  read  in  Basque ;  transla- 
tions have  been  made  into  Finn,  Esth,  Lapp,  Ziryen 
(government  of  Vologda,  N.  E.  Russia),  Hungarian 
(Finno-Ugrian  stock) ;  into  Georgian  (Caucasus)  ; 
into  Turkish.  As  we  cross  into  Asia,  we  find  the 
natives  provided  with  the  Scriptures  in  Armenian; 
in  modern  Persian,  Balochi  (in  Baluchistan),  Pashto 
(in  Afghanistan)  ;  in  Sanskrit,  still  the  language  of 
the  learned  all  over  India,  and  in  the  multitudinous 
dialects  known  as  Indo-Aryan  (Asami,  Bengali, 
Gujarati,  Hindi,  Kashmiri,  Marathi,  Oriya,  Pahari, 
Panjabi,  Rajasthani,  Sindhi,  and  on  the  island  of 
Ceylon,  Sinhalese)  ;  in  the  Munda  dialects  (Mundari, 
Santali)  spoken  in  N.  E.  India;  in  the  various 
Dravidian  tongues  (Kanarese,  Khond,  Malayalam, 
Malto,  Tamil,  Telugu,  Toda,  Tulu)  in  the  provinces 
of  India;  in  the  Indo-Chinese  languages  (Burmese, 
Garo,  Kachin,  Karen,  Khasi,  Lepcha,  Siamese,  Shan, 
Taking,  Tibetan)  ;  in  Chinese,  Japanese  (the  Ainus 
in  the  northernmost  islands  of  Japan,  who  speak  a 
distinct  language,  read  the  Bible  in  their  own  ver- 
nacular), Korean,  Mongolian;  in  the  Malay  dialects 
spoken  in  the  Malay  peninsula  (Malay)  and  the  adja- 
cent islands,  Sumatra  (Batta,  Nias),  Java  (Javanese, 
Sunda),  Borneo  (Dyak,  Sihong),  Celebes  (Bugis, 


112  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

Macassar).  On  the  Australian  continent  and  the 
islands  of  the  Pacific  Ocean  the  Scriptures  are  read 
in  Ilocano  and  Tagalog  (Philippine  Islands),  in  San- 
gir  (Sangir),  in  Mafur,  Motu,  Mukawa,  Toaripi, 
Ubir,  Wedau  (New  Guinea),  in  Mabuiag  (around 
the  Torres  Straits),  in  Narrinyeri  (South  Austraha), 
in  Kusaie,  Ponape,  Ruk  (Caroline  Islands),  in  New 
Britain  (Bismarck  Archipelago),  in  Ebon  (Marshall 
Islands),  in  Mota  (Banks  Islands),  in  Bugotu, 
Mwala,  Ulawa,  Vaturanga  (Solomon  Islands),  in 
Aneityum,  Aniwa,  Eromanga,  Fate,  Futuna,  Maewo, 
Malekula,  Nguna,  Opa,  Raga,  Santo,  Tame  (New 
Hebrides),  in  Lifu,  Mare,  Uvea  (Loyalty  Islands), 
in  Maori  (New  Zealand),  in  Gilbert  Islands,  in 
Rotuma,  in  Fiji,  in  Samoa,  in  Tonga,  in  Tahiti 
(Society  Islands).  Coming  back  to  Western  Asia, 
we  meet  with  Bible  readers  in  Modern  Syriac,  Arabic, 
Mehri,  Sokotri  (Semitic);  and  as  we  cross  to  the 
continent  of  Africa,  the  Bible  is  read  in  another 
Semitic  dialect,  Amharic,  in  Abyssinia;  in  the 
Hamitic  Galla  in  the  same  country;  in  the  Berber 
Kabyli,  in  Northern  Africa;  then  in  a  multitude  of 
negroid  and  negro  tongues :  Swahili  (on  the  eastern 
coast  from  Somaliland  to  Mozambique),  Giryama, 
Gogo,  Kamba,  Shambala,  Taveta  (British  and  Ger- 
man E.  Africa),  Ganda,  Nyoro  (Uganda),  Chewa, 
Tonga,  Yao  (on  the  shores  of  Lake  Nyasa),  Nyanja, 


AGENCIES  FOR  CIRCULATING  THE  BIBLE     113 

Thonga,  Tonga  (Portuguese  E.  Africa),  Ndau, 
Shona  (Rhodesia),  Chuana,  Pedi,  Sheetswa,  Suto, 
Xosa,  Zulu  (S.  Africa),  Nama,  Herero,  Ndonga 
(German  W.  Africa),  Mbundu  (Portuguese  W. 
Africa),  Benga,  Bolengi,  Fang,  Fioti,  Galwa,  Kele, 
Kongo,  Luba,  Mongo,  Mpongwe,  Ngombe,  Poto  (in 
the  Kongo  states),  Dualla,  Isubu,  Efik  (Kamerun), 
Yoruba,  Ibo,  Nupe  (Niger  Territories),  Ewe  (Togo- 
land  in  Dahomey),  Hausa  (Sudan),  Accra,  Ashanti 
(Gold  Coast),  Grebo  (off  Cape  Palmas),  Temne 
(Sierra  Leone)  ;  on  the  island  of  Madagascar  the 
Scriptures  are  read  in  Malagasy.  For  the  benefit 
of  the  aboriginal  tribes  of  the  American  continent 
there  exist  Bible  translations  in  Acawoio,  Arawak, 
Cherokee,  Chippewa,  Choctaw,  Cree,  Dakota,  Es- 
kimo, Lengua,  Mapuche,  Massachusetts,  Micmac, 
Mohawk,  Moskito,  Muskoki,  Nishga,  Osage, 
Tukudh,  Winnebago. 

It  is  well  to  remember  that  a  great  many  of  these 
languages  have  become  known  only  through  Bible 
translations,  the  preparation  of  which 


Some 

zeal  of  the  missionary.  Among  the  men 


-    ,  required  an  infinite  patience  born  of  the 


'PrstuslSitors 

(and  women)  who  considered  it  as  their 

blessed  work  to  bring  the  Word  of  God  within  the 
reach  of  far-off  tribes  by  means  of  translations  in 
their  native  idioms  we  may  single  out  William  Carey, 


114  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

'  the  Wycliffe  of  the  East,'  Joshua  Marshman,  Robert 
Morrison,  Karl  Friedrich  August  Gutzlaff,  Henry 
Nott,  John  WilHams,  John  Gibson  Paton,  Robert 
Moffat,  George  Leonard  Pilkington,  Canon  Robin- 
son, and  Bishop  Shereshewski,  the  *  Christian  Jew/ 
Several  other  ^  Christian  Jews,'  like  Chwolson  and 
Levinsohn  in  Russia,  brought  their  ample  learning 
to  bear  upon  the  delicate  task  of  perfecting  the  trans- 
lations which  the  Bible  Societies  undertook  to  circu- 
late. The  trials  of  a  '  Bible  Society  agent '  have  been 
described  by  George  Henry  Borrow  (i  803-1881)  in 
a  book  '  glowing  with  freshness,  pictur- 
esqueness   and  vivacity,'    The  Bible  in 

^    .  Spain  (184"^).     But  the  labors  of  trans- 

Book.  ,  ^        ^     ^^^ 

lators,    agents,    and    colporteurs    were 

amply  repaid  by  witnessing  the  effect  which  the  Bible 
Word  brought  about  everywhere.  A  notable  in- 
stance may  be  cited.  A  Malagasy  woman,  Rafara- 
vavy,  went  to  purchase  an  idol.  The  maker  had  none 
ready,  and  asked  her  to  wait  while  he  made  one.  He 
thereupon  went  out  into  the  forest,  and  cut  down  a 
small  tree.  Of  the  trunk  he  fashioned  the  idol,  and 
kept  the  branches  for  fuel.  When  preparing  the 
evening  meal,  he  used  some  of  these  to  boil  his  rice. 
The  woman  saw  all  that  happened,  and  went  home 
carrying  her  purchase.  A  day  or  two  later  a  mis- 
sionary read  in  her  house  some  passages  of  the  Scrip- 


AGENCIES  FOR  CIRCULATING  THE  BIBLE     115 

tures,  including  the  forty-fourth  chapter  of  Isaiah. 
'  He  heweth  him  down  cedars,  and  taketh  the  ilex 
and  the  oak  .  .  .  Then  a  man  useth  it  for  fuel ;  and 
he  taketh  thereof,  and  warmeth  himself;  yea,  he 
kindleth  it,  and  baketh  bread  .  .  .  He  burneth  the 
half  thereof  in  the  fire ;  with  the  half  thereof  he  eateth 
flesh;  he  roasteth  roast,  and  is  satisfied;  yea,  he 
warmeth  himself,  and  saith :  "  Aha,  I  am  warm,  I 
have  seen  the  fire  " ;  and  the  residue  thereof  he 
maketh  a  god,  even  his  graven  image ;  he  falleth  down 
unto  it  and  worshippeth,  and  prayeth  unto  it,  and 
saith:  "  Deliver  me,  for  thou  art  my  god."  *  The 
woman  immediately  forswore  idolatry,  and  became  a 
devoted  Christian.  The  words  of  the  prophet  in  the 
Hebrew  Scriptures  uttered  thousands  of  years  ago 
approved  themselves  as  potent  to  convert  a  far-off 
African  heathen. 

The  Jewish  Publication  Society  of  America  has 
for  a  quarter  of  a  century  assiduously  and  success- 
fully labored  in  the  field  of  encouraging 


The  Task 

English  tongue.     Its  crowning  achieve 


,  ,         and  propagating  Jewish  literature  in  the 


ment  is  undoubtedly  the  new  English 

-    .  ^  version  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  and 

Society.  ,  .        ,  -r»., ,  ^      .    ^ 

the  projected  Bible  commentary  m  En- 
glish. The  initial  steps  in  both  undertakings  have 
been  made  possible  chiefly  by  the  generosity  of  the 


ii6  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

noble  American  Jew  who  embodies  the  best  traditions 
of  his  race,  and  whose  name  will  be  linked  to  all  those 
pious  men  of  the  past  who  made  the  multiplication 
of  Bible  copies  and  prints  possible.  The  Society  will 
truly  have  completed  its  task  only  when  it  shall  be 
placed  in  a  position  to  print  and  distribute  the  copies 
of  its  version  at  a  low  cost,  to  the  end  that  the  poorest 
among  us  may  have  access,  in  the  tongue  which  he 
and  his  children  speak  and  love,  to  the  Word  of  God 
which  is  the  heritage  of  the  congregation  of  Israel. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  DIFFICULTIES  INHERENT  IN  ALL  BIBLE 
TRANSLATIONS 

A  frequent  query  must  now  be  answered.  *  Is  not 
the  Word  of  God  one  and  the  same  ?  why  then  should 
Bible  translations  differ  ?  '  The  common  assumption 
is  that  with  a  working  knowledge  of  the  language  of 
the  original  and  a  dictionary  at  hand  the  translation  is 
easy.  Yet  translators  habitually  make  apologies  for 
Til    "n'ffi     If       ^^^^^  shortcomings  and  point  out  the 

^     -      ^.  difficulties  with  which  they  are  con- 

Confronting  ^  ,       ,  ro,  ,  ,  r         , 

^,     ^       ,  ^        fronted.      The  translator  s  preface 
the  Translator.  ^ 

has  a  stereotyped  content.  Every- 
where we  meet  with  the  same  diffidence  and  antici- 
pation of  unfavorable  criticism.  The  prototype  of  all 
prefaces  to  Bible  translations,  the  Prologue  to  the 
Greek  Sirach  (chapter  II),  tersely  expresses  the  diffi- 
culty when  it  observes  that  *  things  originally  uttered 
in  Hebrew  have  not  the  same  force  in  them,  when 
they  are  translated  into  another  tongue,'  and  the 
translator  is  quite  certain  that  the  same  fault  attaches 
to  the  Greek  version  of  *  the  law,  and  the  prophets, 


ii8  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

and  the  rest  of  the  books,'  which  preceded  and  guided 

his  own  effort.    Likewise  the  rabbis  in  Palestine  were 

very  much  troubled  about  the  difficulty  of  adequately 

rendering  the  Torah  into  any  language,  though  at 

times   they   conceded   that   it   might  be   done   into 

Greek.    The  peculiar  delicacy  of  the  translator's  task 

is  emphasized  by  the  greatest  masters  of  style,  and 

interesting  is  the  consensus  of  opinion  that  prose  is 

more  difficult  to  translate  than  poetry. 

The  dictionary  meaning  is  far  from  exhausting 

the  real  meaning  of  a  word.    It  is  one  thing  to  under- 

TT  f       1  t  Til      stand  a  foreign  text  and  quite  another 

__-    ,  to  translate  it  into  the  pure  and  idio- 

Words.  ,      r  r  .  • 

matic  speech  of  free  composition.  At 

every  turn  we  feel  the  cramping  influence  of  foreign 
modes  of  expression,  when  *  pen  and  tongue  are 
attracted  by  the  language  of  the  original.'  Moreover, 
it  is  altogether  an  erroneous  notion  that  words  of 
one  tongue  are  immediately  convertible  into  words 
of  another.  We  speak  of  coining  words,  but  words 
are  not  coins  of  current  value,  that  is,  of  uniform 
sense.  The  dictionary  furnishes  the  general  mean- 
ing; when  we  come  to  apply  it  to  a  specific  instance 
we  are  thrown  upon  our  own  resources.  Puns  and 
plays  on  words  can  rarely  be  imitated,  though  the 
attempt  was  made  in  the  Greek  version  (Judges  lo. 
4).    Proper  names  are  of  course  untranslatable.  Cer- 


DIFFICULTIES  IN  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS      119 

tain  familiar  names  in  the  Bible  have  passed  into 
English  in  the  form  given  them  by  the  earliest  Greek 
translators.  We  say  Moses  and  not  Mosheh ;  on  the 
other  hand  we  call  his  successor  Joshua,  though  in 
Greek  he  became  Jesus.  The  Greek  translation  of 
Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah  known  as  I  Esdras  de- 
lights in  tacking  on  Greek  endings  to  Semitic  names, 
and  the  historian  Josephus  goes  farthest  in  this  direc- 
tion. On  the  other  hand  the  literalist  Aquila  repro- 
duces the  proper  names  in  their  Hebrew  form :  Mose, 
Josua,  Josiahu,  &c.  Two  opposite  tendencies  were 
clearly  operative  in  the  dispersion  and  in  Palestine. 
Weights,  measures,  and  coins  are 
as  a  rule  taken  over  in  their  foreign 

^  «,  nomenclature.       Thus   the   English 

of  Strangeness  ,  ,  ^u     ^  \\  a 

. .  .  reader  may  for  a  moment  be  startled 

avoided.  ,  ,       r-  ,  ,         , 

to  learn  that  Solomon  s  molten  sea 

contained  two  thousand  baths  (I  Kings  7.  26).    Yet 

at  times  the  Authorized  Version  uses  the  general 

word  '  measure  *  for  the  particular  Hebrew  measure 

in  question  (see  for  an  example  H  Kings  7.  i ).    The 

Jewish  Publication  Society  Version  did  the  same  in 

Zechariah  5.  5  ff.     'Pound,'  in  I  Kings  i.  17,  and 

elsewhere,  sounds  rather  strange  in  Palestine,  but  not 

more  so  than  the  anachronistic  '  diaphanous  garments 

of    Lacedaemonian    make '    in    the    Septuagint    of 

Isaiah  (3.  22).     Where  exactness  is  not  requisite, 


120  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

translators  seek  to  avoid  the  appearance  of  strange- 
ness. The  Scriptures,  Oriental,  Palestinian,  Jewish 
in  origin,  have  by  the  very  agency  of  translation 
become  a  book  for  all  peoples  and  places  and  times. 
In  the  vernacular  the  Bible  must  be  adapted  for  men 
who  are  not  concerned  with  the  things  that  interest 
the  student  of  antiquity. 

It  frequently  happens  that  the  translator,  vainly 
seeking  an  equivalent  for  a  Hebrew  word  or  phrase, 

_-    ,         ,  realizes  that  translation  deals  not  so 

words  and 

^          ^.  much  with  words  as  with  civilizations. 

Conceptions 

-.      ,.  Words  are  but  sounds  and  symbols  of 

Peculiar  .                                             -^ 

.  things,  and  these  things  pass  away  with 

„.  .,.    ^.  the   civiHzation   that   produced   them. 

Civilizations.  ^. 

To    transplant   a   definite   civilization 

bounded  by  time,  place,  and  race  must  needs  mean  a 
shifting  and  displacement  and  weakening  of  the 
original.  Where  the  original  speaks  of  hallowing  a 
city  to  God,  we  say  that  it  was  destroyed ;  where  the 
sacred  writers  refer  to  war  as  sanctified,  we  call  it 
declared  or  prepared.  Even  contemporary  cultures 
vary,  and  there  is  give  and  take  in  the  business  of 
word-making.  The  name  travels  with  the  thing,  as 
for  instance  kindergarten;  somehow  we  cannot  trans- 
late esprit  or  Weltanschauung;  and  French  and  Ger- 
man writers  retain  untranslated  English  terms  like 
sport  and  gentleman,  distinct  products  of  the  British 


DIFFICULTIES  IN  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS      121 

civilization.  Every  Jew  knows  what  is  meant  by 
eshet  hail;  a  pure  and  pious  and  kind  and  charitable 
woman  indeed,  but  also  one  that  possesses  power  and 
ability,  faithfully  attending  to  her  household  duties, 
rising  early  and  toiling  all  day  long  that  her  husband 
and  children  may  have  their  comforts.  But  when 
in  Proverbs  31.  10  the  King  James  Bible  denomi- 
nates her  a  virtuous  woman,  the  adjective  is  certainly 
too  narrow  in  the  modern  sense  of  the  word. 

^      „         ,  ,  Translations  have  been  likened  to 

Dne  Regard  to  ^,                    -j      r  t^  ..  u  ^ 

^     .        ^  the  reverse-side  of  Dutch  tapestries : 

the  Genius  of  ,        ,        ,              .                  , 

,,     ^  the   threads   are   the   same,   but   so 

the  Language  .      ,                   ,          , 

,  .  ,   ,,  twisted  as  to  produce  almost  a  cari- 

into  which  the  r^,             ,         ^    ,    ,  .       ,^ 

cature.     The  translator  finds  himself 

face  to  face  with  the  dilemma,  how  to 
combine  fidelity  to  the  original  with 
due  regard  for  the  genius  of  his  own  language.  Some 
languages,  like  the  German,  are  pliable.  French  and 
English,  on  the  other  hand,  are  more  rigid.  Trans- 
lation, according  to  Maimonides,  is  a  species  of 
original  composition,  and  the  translator  a  companion 
to  the  author.  Bible  translations  of  ancient  and 
modern  times  run  the  whole  gamut  from  the  inter- 
linear, which  translates  *  not  words,  but  syllables,'  to 
the  free  reproductions,  which  read  more  like  com- 
mentaries than  translations.  Among  the  ancients, 
Theodotion,  and  in  modern  times  the  Anglican  Ver- 


122  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

sion  of  i6ii,  may  be  singled  out  as  avoiding  the 
two  extremes.  The  diction  of  the  original  is  pre- 
served; in  every  line  the  peculiar  scriptural  style 
reveals  itself  in  all  the  simplicity  of  Hebrew  prose,  in 
all  the  grandeur  of  sacred  poetry ;  not  a  word  seems 
to  be  lost;  yet  frequently  the  Hebrew  expression  is 
recast,  where  a  crude  literalness  would  fail  to  pro- 
duce on  the  English  ear  the  effect  of  the  original. 
The  right  kind  of  a  translation  must  not  turn  itself 
into  a  diffuse  commentary,  but  an  abbreviated  com- 
mentary every  translation  must  necessarily  become. 
,  Where  the  original  admits  of  more 

,  .  ^        than  one  interpretation,  the  translator 
TJiiccri8.in.tv 

-  ^,     _  must  choose  one  to  the  exclusion  of 

of  the  Sense.      ,        ,  t    •    <•       i  • 

the  others.     It  is  for  this  very  reason 

that  the  rabbis  frown  upon  all  translations.  With 
them  the  multiple  sense  of  the  scriptural  word  is  an 
accepted  fact.  There  is  not  a  verse,  they  maintain, 
which  may  not  be  understood  in  two  or  three  differ- 
ent manners,  and  the  children  in  king  David's  time 
knew  how  to  interpret  the  Torah  according  to  forty- 
nine  *  faces.'  The  rabbinical  varieties  probably  refer 
to  the  legal  deductions  or  moral  lessons ;  nevertheless 
it  could  not  have  escaped  them  that  the  simple  sense 
itself  was  a  matter  on  which  experts  were  divided. 
'  Any  reader  of  the  Bible  in  Hebrew,'  so  wrote  Dr. 
Schechter,  '  knows  only  too  well  how  many  passages 


DIFFICULTIES  IN  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS      123 

there  are  that  have  been  from  time  immemorial  the 
despair  of  the  commentators  and  have  defied  all  their 
attempts  at  elucidation,  and  yet  read  smoothly  enough 
in  our  versions.  Take,  for  instance,  the  "  Song  of 
Deborah,"  or  the  sixty-eighth  psalm,  or  innumerable 
passages  in  Job  which  are  still  the  subject  of  contro- 
versy by  scholars  but  which  do  not  rouse  the  slightest 
suspicion  in  the  man  who  relies  upon  his  English 
Bible.'  The  poet  Immanuel  of  Rome  (about  1300) 
makes  king  David  in  heaven  summon  all  the  com- 
mentators of  the  Psalter,  headed  by  David  Kimhi, 
and  their  worth  is  to  be  tested  by  the  staggering  task 
of  expounding  the  eighth  and  sixtieth  psalm.  Of 
the  two  concluding  verses  of  the  thirty-sixth  chap- 
ter of  Job  commentators  enumerate  some  thirty  dif- 
ferent explications.  But  the  simplest  passages  in  any 
book  of  the  Bible  are  often  a  source  of  perplexity  to 
the  commentator  and  translator.  The  fourth  verse 
of  the  sixth  chapter  of  Deuteronomy,  which  under 
the  name  of  the  Shema'  is  repeated  by  every  devout 
Jew  twice  daily  and  has  been  on  the  lips  of  dying 
Jews  for  centuries,  has  been  rendered  in  half  a  dozen 
different  ways.  There  are  examples  in  the  Bible 
where  a  deeper,  more  spiritual,  or  more  widely  appli- 
cable (universalistic)  meaning  has  superseded  the 
original  sense  in  the  consciousness  of  the  Jewish 
people.  '  The  Bible  is  and  was  at  all  times  a  Word 
9 


124  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

full  of  fresh  life,  not  a  dead  book  belonging  to  a  par- 
ticular age  and  dependent  for  its  meaning  on  the  time 
when  it  was  written,  but  replete  with  new  truths  and 
keeping  pace  with  the  national  spirit  as  it  impressed 
its  own  stamp  upon  the  sacred  text '  (Geiger). 

_  .  ^  It  is  unavoidable,  of  course,  that  the 

Points  ... 

- .  ,  Scriptures  which  are  held  in  veneration  by 

on  wnicn  -^ 

n^.  •  J.'  Tews  and  Christians  should  occasionally 

Christians  ,              ,     ,       ,               ,    r  ,               i- 

,  _  become  the  battle-ground  of  the  two  relig- 

.„.  ions.    Fortunately  with  the  srreater  num- 

Disagree.     ,         ^  .  ;  ,     ^  . 

ber  of  mstances  the  translator  is  not  con- 
cerned at  all,  the  Christian  application  to  the  life 
and  death  of  Jesus  being  a  matter  of  interpretation 
solely,  while  the  wording  is  and  remains  neutral. 
Such  in  particular  is  the  case  with  the  Servant's  Tri- 
umph through  Martyrdom  in  Isaiah  52.  13-53.  ^^^ 
But  a  few  passages  there  are  on  which  the  versions 
of  the  Church  and  the  translations  of  the  Synagogue 
must  differ,  and  modern  Christian  commentators  are 
forced  to  acknowledge  that  the  Jews  are  right.  The 
three  most  notable  examples  are  found  in  Isaiah  7. 
14;  9.  5;  and  Zechariah  12.  10.  A  further  instance 
might  be  afforded  by  Psalm  22.  16  ( 17) ,  but  there  the 
question  turns  about  a  disputed  reading  of  the  origi- 
nal. Jewish  scholars  of  the  type  of  Heidenheim  are 
free  to  confess  that  the  uncertainty  is  of  ancient 
times  antedating  the  schism  which  led  to  the  rise  of 


DIFFICULTIES  IN  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS      125 

Christianity ;  of  a  deliberate  alteration  from  an  anti- 
Christian  motive  there  is  not  the  least  trace  what- 
soever. 

A  Christian  scholar,  recently  pleading  for  a  new 
edition  of  the  received  Hebrew  text  of  the  Scriptures, 
expressed  his  conviction  that  its  makers  did  the  very 
best  they  could  with  the  material  at  their  disposal. 

„,  „  ,  ^  The  fixing-  of  the  text  coincided  with 
TI16  Text  of 

.  the  admission  of  a  writing  into  the 

.„  ,  ^.  '  collection  consigned  to  the  keeping  of 
Emendations.      .  tt  1    ^ir  -^      t    .u 

the  synagogue  as  Holy  Writ,     in  the 

case  of  the  Torah  we  have  it  on  the  authority  of  the 
rabbis  that  a  model  copy  kept  in  the  Temple  court 
was  the  standard  after  which  new  transcripts  were 
corrected  and  that  there  existed  a  guild  of  correctors 
in  the  pay  of  the  Temple  treasury.  Other  books,  in 
particular  those  belonging  to  the  third  division  (the 
Ketubim,  or  Writings),  must  have  circulated  pri- 
vately, uncared  for  by  the  watchful  official  eye,  and 
when  they  were  transferred  to  the  synagogue  their 
text  had  suffered  under  the  hands  of  careless  copyists. 
When  it  is  remembered  how,  for  example,  in  the 
persecution  under  Antiochus  Epiphaness  the  sacred 
scrolls  were  ruthlessly  destroyed,  the  marvel  is  that 
the  condition  of  the  text  is  not  much  worse  than  it  is. 
That  the  received  text  is  in  need  of  correction,  or, 
as  the  technical  term  goes,  emendation,  is  recognized 


126  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

by  the  medieval  Jewish  students  of  the  Bible.  None 
perhaps  went  so  far  as  Ibn  Janah  and  his  admiring 
follower  Tanhum  of  Jerusalem,  who  have  frequently- 
anticipated  the  suggestions  now  going  by  the  name 
of  modern  emendations.  In  the  nineteenth  century, 
Krochmal  and  Luzzatto  fearlessly  emended  the  re- 
ceived text.  The  tendency  among  modern  scholars, 
Jews  and  Christians,  lightly  to  distrust  the  text  of 
the  Synagogue  is  discountenanced  by  more  serious 
students.  A  judicious  handling  of  the  ancient  ver- 
sions often  brings  to  light  superior  readings.  But 
whether  by  the  aid  of  the  versions  or  by  mere  con- 
jecture, the  business  of  textual  emendation  requires 
a  sure  tact  which  few  possess. 

The  translator  is  not  called  upon  to  re-write  the 
original.  A  translation  destined  for  the  people  can 
_,  only  follow  the  traditional  text.    Never- 

„  ,  ^  ,  theless  a  translator  is  not  a  transcriber. 
Translator's    ^_.  ,  ,      ,     tt  . 

_  .  .  He  must  endeavor  to  make  the  Hebrew 
Exig^encies. 

intelligible.    He  is  therefore  frequently 

forced  to  use  circumlocution,  to  add  a  word  or  two,  to 

alter  the  sequence  of  words,  and  so  on.     When  he 

is  confronted  with  a  textual  difficulty  of  the  lighter 

order,  he  will,  if  he  can,  avoid  the  obscurity  by  deft 

manipulation  and  sometimes  by  the  addition  of  a 

few  words.     Such  are  the  translator's  exigencies 

which  have  been  faced  by  the  ancient  and  modern 

versions  frequently  in  the  same  manner.     Where  a 


DIFFICULTIES  IN  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS      127 

divergence  occurs  in  the  traditional  text  itself,  as 
between  the  reading  in  the  body  of  the  text  (ketib) 
and  the  alternate  reading  or  correction  on  the  margin 
(kere),  a  Jewish  translator  must  necessarily  follow 
the  latter  which  has  become  authoritative  in  the  Syna- 
gogue. There  are  cases  in  which  the  marginal  read- 
ing is  clearly  the  inferior,  and  sometimes  both  are 
unacceptable.  The  traditional  accents,  marking  stops 
according  to  sense,  are  naturally  a  great  help.  Ibn 
Ezra  laid  down  the  principle  that  no  interpretation 
running  counter  to  the  accents  should  be  followed. 
Yet  he  frequently  enough  sinned  against  them.  Here 
the  translator,  if  he  chooses  to  be  a  sinner,  will  find 
himself  in  good  company. 

The  margin  in  the  King  James  Bible,  retained  with 
modifications  in  the  Revised  Version,  is  really  a  rem- 

„.     ,_      .      nant  of  the  annotated  editions.  It  serves 

The  Margin 

.      ,  a  fourfold  purpose.    It  gives  the  literal 

,     ,.  meaning  of  the  Hebrew  where  in  the 

Anglican  .      ,    ,. 

-_     .  text,  m  obedience  to  the  genius  of  the 

English  language,  a  freer  rendering 
has  been  adopted;  alternate  renderings  implying  a 
different  interpretation  (sometimes  the  information 
is  added  that  the  meaning  of  the  Hebrew  word  or 
phrase  is  obscure  or  unknown)  ;  references  to  diver- 
gent readings  from  Hebrew  manuscripts  or  '  ancient 
authorities  ' ;  and  lastly,  explanations  without  which 
the  purport  immediately  intelligible  in  Hebrew  would 


128  STORY  OF  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS 

be  lost  in  translation.  The  wise  words  on  the  sub- 
ject found  in  the  preface  to  the  King  James  Bible 
have  been  quoted  above  (chapter  V).  A  modern 
scholar  maintains  that  there  are  four  hundred  words 
in  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  the  meaning  of  which 
cannot  be  ascertained.  Yet  in  none  of  the  four 
aspects  is  the  margin  of  the  two  Anglican  versions 
exhaustive.  Such  matters  must  be  left  to  the  com- 
mentary; in  a  translation  which  has  respect  to  the 
needs  of  the  people  they  are  bewildering.  After  all, 
to  quote  again  from  the  preface  to  the  Authorized 
Version,  we  must  not  '  weary  the  unlearned,  who 
need  not  know  so  much ;  and  trouble  the  learned,  who 
know  it  already.' 

It  will  have  become  clear  to  the  reader  by  this  time 

why  it  is  that  Bible  translations  do  and  must  differ. 

mi     -rx'ir  The  modcm  man  will  not  find  solace 

The  Differences  .       ,  , ,  .   .    ,     ,  r     . 

-  _       ,  ,.  m   the    rabbmical   doctrme   of   the 
of  Translations         ,  .  ,  _,  ,      , 

J  i.  i.  T.  multiple  sense,  ihere  can  be  but 
do  not  touch  ^       .  ,  ,      r  , 

XT.  -17  i.-  1  oi^c  meanmg  to  the  word  of  law- 
the  Essentials.  ,        ,  .       .  ,    . 

giver,  prophet,  historian,  psalmist, 

or  teacher  of  wisdom;  unless  it  be  that  here  and 

there,  of  a  set  purpose,  the  sacred  writer  plays,  as 

in  riddle  and  parable,  with  the  double  meaning.    But 

even  there  the  business  of  the  translator  is  to  express 

the  surface  meaning,  the  proximate  sense.  The  Bible, 

of  course,  is  literature,  and  literature  of  a  high  order. 


DIFFICULTIES  IN  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS      129 

which  to  be  enjoyed  requires  utmost  clarity  in  the 
most  trifling  particulars.  But  the  Bible  is  first  and 
foremost  a  religious  book;  it  is  read  by  the  devout 
that  they  may  be  confirmed  in  their  faith,  and  for 
that  faith  the  Word  of  God  as  contained  in  the 
Scriptures,  dealing  as  it  does  with  the  eternal  verities 
of  God  and  Providence  and  the  destinies  of  His  elect 
people — in  this  its  larger  meaning  the  Word  of  God 
is  one  and  the  same.  According  to  the  Jewish 
mystics,  the  heavenly  Torah  was  written  in  black 
fire  upon  white  fire ;  the  Torah  which  was  committed 
to  the  care  of  mortals  must  needs  have  been  written 
in  ink  upon  skins  or  parchment.  The  ink  may  have 
faded,  and  the  parchment  may  have  become  brittle, 
but  withal  the  fiery  Word  still  speaks  to  us  through 
letters  and  dots,  and  with  unimpaired  force  the  faith 
that  was  implanted  in  the  heart  of  the  Jew  is  trans- 
lated to  untold  millions  in  the  diverse  tongues  of 
humankind. 


INDEX 


Abu    Said,    63 

Achaemenian  inscriptions,  81 

Adam,   Michael,  63 

Adler,  Cyrus,  100,  102 

Akiba,   Rabbi,   17 

Aldine  edition  of  the  Septuagint,  66 

Alexander  the  Great,  27 

Alexandrian    version,    84,    89;    see 

also  Septuagint 
Alting,  80,  8s 

American  Bible  Society,  109 
lf\merican    Revised  Version,   97 
Anglican  versions;  see  Authorized 

Version;   Revised  Version 
Antiochus  Epiphanes,   125 
Aquila,  39,  40,  41,  42,  43,   119 
Arabic  versions,  48,  53,   54,  55,  63 
Aramaic  version;  see  Targum 
Aristeas,  Epistle  of,   29,   84 
Armenian   version,    48 
Arnheim,  88 

Arragel,  Rabbi  Moses,  62 
Assemani,  79 
Astruc,  Jean,  8a 
Atias,  Yom  Tob,  62 
Augustine,  45 
Authorized  Version,  48,  68,  77,  93, 

96,    104,    105,    109,    no,    119, 

121,    127,    128;    see  also   King 

James   Version 

Bacher,  89,  93 
iBacr,  S.,  95 
Banoczi,  Jozsef,  93 
Barannina,  41 
{Barrington,    Shute,    93 


Ben  Asher,  51 

Benisch,  93 

Benjoin,  94 

Ben  Naphtali,  51 

Benseeb,   Judah   Loeb,   87 

Beza,  72 

Bible  Societies,  109,  no,  114 

Bible  translations  in  various  lan- 
guages and  dialects,   110-113 

Bishops'  Bible,  73 

Biurists,    87,    94 

Blayney,   94 

Blitz,  Jekuthiel,  63 

Borrow,    George   Henry,    114 

Boudinot,    Elias,    109 

Breeches  Bible;   see  Geneva  Bible 

British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society, 
109 

Broughton,  Hugh,    77 

Burgon,   Dean,   97 

Buxtorf,  80 

Cahen,    S.,   92 

Cahen's  Bible,  qs 

Calvin,  72 

Cambyses,    12,   29 

Cannstein  Bible  Institute,   109 

Capellus,  80 

Carey,    William,    113 

Castle,  Edmund,  80 

Chateillon,  67 

Cheyne,  95,  99 

Chwolson,    114 

Complutensian,  66 

Constantine,    108 

Coptic  version,  27,  48,  49 


132 


INDEX 


Council  of  Trent,  47 
Covcrdale,  Miles,  70,  71 
Cranmer,  72 
Cromwell,    84 
Cromwell,    Thomas,    70 
Cyrillus,  64 

Damascus,    Roman   bishop,   46 

Danz,   80 

Davidson,  95 

dei   Rossi,  Azariah,  84 

Delgado,   Isaac,   93 

Delitzsch,  Franz,  82,  91 

de    Lyra,    Nicholas,    56;    see    also 

Lyranus 
Demetrius  of  Phalerum,   30 
de  Rossi,  81 

de  Vargas,  Jeronimo,  62 
Dillmann,  82 
Dieu,  80 
Douai  Bible,  48 
Driver,  95,  99 
Dubno,  Solomon,  86 
du  Jon,  68 
Dukes,  Leopold,  92 
Dunash,   55,  60 
Dutch  version,  98 

Ehrlich,  Arnold  B.,  91 

Eichhorn,  81 

Eliezer,   Rabbi,    17,   39 

Erasmus,  70 

Ethiopic  version,   48,  49 

Eusebius,  108 

Ewald,  82 

Ezra,  II,  12,  24 

Fagius,    Paul,    61 
Faro  Pentateuch,   108 
Ferrara   Bible,    62 
Field,   95 

Fischer,  Gyula,  93 
Francke,    109 
Frankel,  Zechariah,  89 


French   version,    56,    65;    sec   also 

Cahen's  Bible 
Frensdorff,  95 
Friedlander,    David,    87 
Friedlander,  Michael,  93 
Fiirst,  88,  92 

Gacon,  Samuel,   108 

Gallican  Psalter,  46 

Gamaliel  the  Elder,  16 

Geiger,  Abraham,  88,  90,  124 

Gemara,  16 

Geneva  Bible,  72,  73,  75,  77,  108 

Genizah,   42 

Georgian   version,   48 

German  Bible,  66 

German   revision,   98 

Gershom,   Rabbenu,  55 

Gesenius,  58,  82 

Ginsburg,  Christian  David,  95,  no 

Gothic  version,  48,  49 

Graetz,  Heinrich,  89 

Great  Bible,  7 J,  72 

Greek  translation,   10,  49,  61,   117, 

118,    119;   see  also    Septuagint 
Gutzlaff,    Karl    Friedrich    August, 

114 

Hai  Gaon,   58 

Hanau,  Solomon,  85 

Hasdai  Ibn  Shaprut,  55 

Hayyuj,  Judah,  57 

Heidenheim,  Wolf,  87,  88,   124 

Herder,  81 

Hcrxheimer,  92 

Hexapla,  42,  46 

Hillel,  20 

Hillel,  Rabbi,  41 

Hirsch,  Samson  Raphael,  91 

Hoffmann,    D.,    91 

Hooykas,  99 

Hopkins,  94 

Hungarian   translation,   92 

Huss,  John,  66 


INDEX 


133 


Ibn  Adonijah,  Jacob  son  of  Haim, 

(>7 
Ibn  Ezra,  Abraham,  58,  59,  60,  90, 

127 
Ibn  Gabirol,  58 

Ibn  Janah,  Jonah,  57,  58,  126 
Immanuel  of  Rome,  123 
Isaac,  son  of  Saul,   57 
Italian  version,  65 
Ixar  Pentateuch,  108 

Jacob,  son  of  Isaac  of  Janow,  63 

Jacob,  son  of  Meir;  see  Tarn 

Jacobs,  Joseph,   102,   103 

Jastrow,    Marcus,    100 

Jeitteles,   Ignaz,   87 

Jerome,  14,  41,  42,  46,  47,  48,  49, 
56,  61,  64,   76 

Jesus  son  of  Sirach;  see  Sirach 

Jewish  Publication  Society  of  Am- 
erica, 99,  100,  101,  102,  103, 
115,  116,  119;  see  also  New 
Translation 

Jewish-Spanish    version,    62 

Jonathan  son  of  Uziel,  20 

Joseph,  Rab,  18,  20 

Josephus,   119 

Joshua,   Rabbi,    17,  39 

Juda,  Leo,  67,  71 

Judah  II,  Rabbi,  the  Patriarch  41 

Judah    ha-Levi,    58 

Judas  Maccabeus,   38 

Judeo-German  version,  63 

Juliana,  42 

Justinian,    40 

Kahn,  Zadok,  92 

Kalir,  52 

Kalisch,  93 

Karaite  versions,  63 

Kautzsch,  Emil,  98 

Kennicott,  81 

Kimhi,  David,  60,  61,  62,  123 

Kimhi,   Joseph,   60 

Kimhi,  Moses,  60 


King  James  Version,  31,  68,  72, 
73.  78,  79.  93,  94.  95.  99.  loi, 
127,  128;  see  also  Authorized 
Version 

Knox,  John,   72 

Kohler,  K.,   100,   102 

Koran,  52 

Kosters,  99 

Krochmal,    126 

Kuenen,  98 

Lagarde,   61 

Lagi;    see   Ptolemy 

Latin   Version,   44,   45,   47,   48,   56 

Leeser,  Isaac,  94,  99,  100,  loi,  104 

Leo  X,  Pope,  67 

Lessing,  86 

Levinsohn,   114 

Levita,  Elias,  61,  63 

Levita,  Isaac,  85 

Lisbon  Pentateuch,    108 

Loans,  Jacob  Jehiel,  61 

Lonzano,    Menahem,    84 

Low,   Immanuel,  93 

Lowth,  81,  94 

Luther,  56,  64,  66,  68,  69,  70,  75, 

79,  82,  98 
Luzzatto,  Samuel  David,  89,  90,  91, 

92,   126 
Lyranus,    Nicholas,    69;    see    also 

de  Lyra 

Maimonides,  10,  21,  90,  93,  121 
Malbim,   Meir   Leibush,   91 
Manasseh  ben  Israel,  84 
Mandelstamm,  L.  I.,  92 
Marlowe,  78 
Marshman,  Joshua,  114 
Masorah,  51,  54,  67,  84,  87 
Masoretes,  54 
Matthew's  Bible,  71 
Menahem  ben  Saruk,  55,  56,  60 
Mendelssohn,    Moses,   86,   87 
Mendelssohn's  translation,   32 
Methodius,  64 


134 


INDEX 


Michaelis,  80 

Midrash,  50 

Mishnah,   14,   16,  50,  53 

MofFat,   Robert,    114 

Mohammed,    wives    of,    19 

Molech  worship,   14 

Morinus,  80 

Morrison,   Robert,   114 

Mulder,  S.  I.,  92 

Munk,   Solomon,   92 

Miinster,  Sebastian,  61,  67,  68,  71 

Nehemiah,   12 

Neo-Greek  version,   62 

Newcome,  94 

Newman,  Selig,  93 

New  Translation,  99,  104,  115,  116, 
119;  see  also  Jewish  Publica- 
tion  Society  of  America 

Niebuhr,  Carsten,  80 

Noldeke,   82,  90 

Norzi,   Solomon  Jedidiah,   85 

Nott,  Henry,   114 

Old-Bulgarian  version,  64 
Onderwijser,    92 
Onkelos,   16,    17,   18,  90 
Oort,  99 
Origen,  41,  42,  46 

Pagninus,  Sanctes,  67 
Pappenheim,  Solomon,  87 
Parker,   Archbishop,   73 
Paton,   John   Gibson,    114 
Perkins,  44 

Persian  version,  48,  61 
Pcshitta,  45,  49 
Philadelphus;  see  Ptolemy 
Philippson,    92 

Philipson,  David,  94,   roi,  102 
Pilkington,    George    Leonard,     114 
Pinel,   Duarte,   62 
Pococke,   Edward,   79 
Polyglot,  61,  79;   see  also  Walton 
Port  Royal  version  of  the  Gospels, 
108 


Pratensis,   Felix,   67 
Psammetich   II,   29 
Pseudo-Jonathan,   19 
Ptolemy,  29,  32,  35 

Rabbinic   Bible,   66 

Rafaravavy,    a    Malagasy    woman, 

114 
Rapoport,   Solomon  Judah,   87 
Rashi,  55,  56,  59,  60,  62,  69 
Reggio,   Isaac   Samuel,   89 
Reuchlin,   61 
Reuss,  Edward,  98 
Revised  Version,  94,  97,   101,   104, 

127,  128 
Robinson,   Canon,    114 
Rogers,   72 
Rosenmuller,   82 
Russian   translation,   92 

Saadya  Gaon,   53,    54,   55,    58,   59, 

63 
Sachs,  88 
Salmati,  Solomon,   son  of  Maimon, 

108 
Samaritan  Targum,  20 
Samuel,  son  of  Meir,  56 
Sayce,  95 
Schechter,  Solomon,  42,   100,    102, 

103,  122 
Schiff,  Jacob  H.,  103 
Schulman,   Samuel,    102 
Schultens,  Albert,  80 
Septuagint,   26-38,   41,   45,   76;   see 

also  Greek  translation 
Sforno,  Obadiah,  61 
Shakespeare,   78 
Shereshewski,    Bishop,    114 
Sidney,  78 
Sirach,  35,  37,   117 
Siracid,  37 
Smith,  Payne,  95 
Smith,  W.   Robertson,   58,   95 
Sofer,  Moses,  86 

Solomon   son  of    Isaac;   see   Rashi 
Spenser,  78 


INDEX 


135 


Spinoza,   59 
Symmachus,  40,  41,  42 
Syriac  Version,  44 

Talmud,  13,  16,  17,  18,  19,  33,  50, 
51,  52,  53,  85 

Tam,  60 

Tanhum  of  Jerusalem,   126 

Targeman,    13 

Targum,  9-25,  26,  35,  45,  52,  54. 
62 

Targum  of  Jerusalem,  19 

Targum  Jonathan;  see  Pseudo- 
Jonathan 

Tartaric  version,  63 

Tawos,    Rabbi   Jacob,   61 

Teutsch-Homesh,    63 

Theodotion,    40,   41,    42,    121 

Tremellius,  Immanuel,  68 

Tyndale,  William,  70,  71 


Usque,   Abraham,   62 

Vulgate,  46,  47,  48,  67,  68 
Variorum  Bible,  99 

Waldus,    Peter,   65 
Walton,  Brian,  61,  79 
Wellhausen,  82,  91 
Wessely,  Hartwig,  86 
Williams,  John,  114 
Wintle,  94 

Witzenhausen,  Joseph,  63 
Wogue,  Lazare,  92 
Wycliffe,   65,   72 

Zeenah     u-reenah;     see     Teutsch- 
Homesh 
Zunz,  Leopold,  87,  88,  94 
Zunz  Bible,  88 
Zwingli,  67,  7© 


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